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SAINT LOUIS 
A CIVIC MASQUE — 



By Percy MacKaye 



The Canterbury Pilgrims. A Comedy. 

Jeanne d'Arc. A Tragedy. 

Sappho and Phaon. A Tragedy. 

Fenris the Wolf. A Tragedy. 

A Garland to Sylvia. A Dramatic Reverie. 

The Scarecrow. A Tragedy of the Ludicro'us. 

Yankee Fantasies. Five One-Act Plays. 

Mater, Art American Siiidy in Comedy. 

Anti-Matrimony. A Satirical Comedy. 

To-MoRROW. A Play in Three Acts. 

Sanctuary. A Bird Masque. 

Saint Loins. A Civic Masque. 

A Thousand Years Ago. A Romance of the Orient. 

Poems. 

Uriel, and Other Poems. 

Lincoln. A Centenary Ode. 

The Playhouse and the Play. Essays. 

The Civic Theatre. Essays. 



At All Booksellers 




\ 



FIGURE OF "gold" 

Drawn by Joseph Lindon Smith 



SAINT LOUIS 

A CIVIC MASQUE 



BY 



PERCY MACKAYE 




GARDEN CITY NEW YORK 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
1914 






T53 



Copyright^ 1914, by 
Percy MacKaye 

All rights reserved, including that 

oj translation into foreign 

languages, including the 

Scandinavian 



Note: — For permission to read in public this Masque or 
any other dramatic work by the author, application must 
be made direct to the author, in care of the publishers. 



m !2 !9i4 



y *^> 



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©C(.A37404(J 



To 
THE CITIZENS OF SAINT LOUIS 

WHOSE ORGANIZED FORESIGHT FOR ART 
HAS CREATED AN INSPIRING PRECEDENT 
IN THE SOCIALIZATION OF MODERN CITIES 



PREFACE 

This masque is a contribution to a distinctive art-form of 
the Civic Theatre, in its large-scale aspects, as outlined in a 
recent volume under that title by the author.* 

To witness the manifold growth of the civic theatre idea, and 
in some part to share in it, is to experience a kind of thrilling 
assurance of its large destinies. For some years past, I have 
had occasion to speak and write of the potential use and public 
need of the art of such a theatre — a dramatic art expressing 
community life, created by social-minded craftsmen, and par- 
ticipated in by representative numbers of the people. 

Not until last autumn, however, was the opportunity forth- 
coming for me to ^'hand over" some concrete sample of my 
meaning, as applied to the organized expression of a large 
city. Last autumn that opportunity came in the request of 
the Saint Louis Pageant Drama Association that I should create 
a dramatic work (the one here published) appropriate to be en- 
acted out of doors by several thousand citizens of Saint Louis, 
in the great natural amphitheatre at Forest Park, on the one 
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Saint Louis, 
in May, 1914. 

The idea of celebrating that anniversary by a form of com- 
munity expression originated with Miss Charlotte Rumbold, 
whose significant work in the Saint Louis playgrounds has justly 
won national attention. In association with her, Mr. William 
La Beaume, Mr. Luther Ely Smith, Mr. John Gundlach, Mr. 
Dwight Davis, Mr. Percival Chubb, and other social-spirited 



* *' The Civic Theatre, in Relation to the Redemption of Leisure," by 
Percy MacKaye; Mitchell Kennerley New York, 191 2. 
See Appendix Page 86 



VU 



PREFACE 



citizens set about last summer to canvas the national field for 
workers having some proficiency in the incipient art of pageantry. 
In September, after conference with Miss Rumbold and Mr. 
La Beaume in the East, I received an invitation from the Saint 
Louis committee to submit to them my ideas regarding the 
proposed celebration in May. I did so in a letter from which I 
quote here in part: 

"I have the following proposal to make, which I believe would 
be beneficial to the success of the total celebration. 
*'My proposal is this: 
''Let the celebration consist of 

THE PAGEANT AND MASQUE OF SAINT LOUIS 

"Let PAGEANT and MASQUE be distinct, and under dif- 
ferent directorships, though harmonized of course in their 
general scope and design. 

"Let the PAGEANT consist of a daytime celebration, in- 
volving the coordination of all those festival activities which 
your committee has contemplated, and which some expert whom 
they may select may direct, according to a plan satisfactory to 
the expert and your committee. 

"Let the MASQUE consist of a civic drama, interpreting sym- 
bolically the large historic meanings of Saint Louis, acted after 
nightfall: the Masque to be written by myself and staged by 
Mr. Joseph Lindon Smith, under our authority and directorship 
distinct from that of the Pageant proper. 

"To the writing of such a MASQUE OF SAINT LOUIS 
I should, of course, be happy to give my best labor in preparative 
study of material, creative thought, and technical handling; and 
I could place its scenic production, costuming, lighting, etc., in 
no available hands more sympathetically artistic and efficient 
than Mr. Smith's. 

"As this concentration upon the single large night-feature, 
the Masque, would lend itself to noble artistic possibilities of 

viii 



PREFACE 



dramatic unity and scenic impressiveness, it appeals to us as a 
plan which should not only provide Saint Louis, during its time 
of celebration, with a distinctive, popular entertainment of a 
nature to be widely noticed for its novelty and individual treat- 
ment, but one also which should stand as a worthy pioneer con- 
tribution to that future repertory of civic dramas, which I have 
suggested in my volume may well be offered by the great cities 
of America, as a national expression in dramatic art." 

A little later in the autumn, the suggestions of this letter 
were adopted by the committee, and I received the definite 
commission to undertake the Saint Louis work, in association 
with Mr. Joseph Lindon Smith as stage producer, and Mr. 
Frederick S. Converse as composer. 

So much of retrospect is pertinent, since it gives the origins 
of what, I believe, may prove to be an important precedent in 
the technical development of civic pageantry — the correlation 
of Pageant and Masque as a single art event, to express a large- 
scale community celebration. 

Mr. Thomas Wood Stevens, director of the school of drama at 
the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburg, was chosen to write and 
produce the Pageant. Thoroughly skilled as a maker of pag- 
eants in a notable series at the Art Institute of Chicago, he 
has brought to our total task a rare spirit of cooperation. To 
this volume he has kindly consented to contribute a synopsis 
of his Pageant,* so that the ensemble effect of the day-and-night 
celebration may be the more clearly imagined by the general 
reader, and estimated by the student of this still tentative art. 

The plan of correlated Pageant and Masque seeks to solve an 
essential problem in a new profession — a profession which I 
have elsewhere termed Dramatic Engineering. 

The problem is this: 

A great city seeks to understand itself as a social organism. 
Socially its life has flowed from far times and places to a present 



*See Appendix, p. 95 



PREFACE 



focus, which again radiates into dimly imaginable futurity. A 
great city, in short, seeks for the first time to imagine its own 
origins and destiny — its life drama. 

What is the best method to compass this imagining? 
First, its people must convene in maximum numbers practi- 
cable for seeing and hearing. The city must, therefore, possess a 
great auditorium of proper topography and acoustics. 

(Saint Louis has such a natural auditorium at Art Hill, well 
adapted for an audience of a hundred thousand persons.) 

Next, the people must behold their history (past and present) 
visualized, and hear its meanings interpreted. This implies a 
stage technically adapted to these needs of eye and ear. 

(At a cost of $25,000, Saint Louis has built such a stage — a 
stage of land and water, the largest of its kind in the world — 
provided with vast sounding-boards for speech and choral song, 
and with massing spaces for ten thousand actors.) 

But if the people are truly to imagine their life drama, they 
must not merely behold and hear it. Representatively they 
must themselves enact and interpret it. The poet-dramatist 
must be called in as engineer, but the people must provide in 
themselves his creative material. 

(Saint Louis has thus provided several hundred men and 
women as working organizers, and seven thousand of its citizens 
as actors.) 

But now arises the crux of the engineer's problem. 
A huge, half-socialized, modern multitude, unused by exper- 
ience to imagining, is now gathered for the definite purpose both 
to imagine and interpret the visioning of the civic dramatist. 

To solve this special problem in crowd psychology — what 
method shall the dramatist adopt? 

As a pioneering step toward a solution, the method of Pageant 
and Masque (in correlated sequence) is being tested in Saint 
Louis. Its principle is to lead the attention of large masses from 
the more specific and familiar images of reality to images less 
familiar and more general, by a means of increasing dramatic 
tensity. 



PREFACE 



Thus in my Masque it is my object to set forth, in symbolic 
form, the national and universal meanings underlying, the Pag- 
eant. 

In his Pageant Mr. Stevens will emphasize, and marshal 
movingly in onward flowing episodes, the more local and his- 
toric meanings of human life, as that life has been enacted by 
successive generations on or near the locaUty of Saint Louis. 
Necessarily and appropriately the emphasis of the Pageant will 
be upon a selection of actual local occurrences, and its dialogue 
will be more or less literal and naturalistic. At its conclusion, 
the audience will, as it were, have witnessed from a hill-top (not 
too distant for the recognition of personalities in the groupings) 
the social life of their city from its beginnings. 

Thus, then, at the point of the Pageant's conclusion it be- 
comes the function of the Masque to adopt another scale of out- 
look, and to relate that local Hfe to larger national and world life. 
In other words, the Masque will seek to remove the audience in 
imagination from its hill-top to a viewpoint of even larger 
vantage — let us say, to the bird's-eye view of the horizon's rim. 
There another and distinctive method of appeal must be adopted 
by the dramatist — the method of symbolism. 

In conceiving my Masque, therefore, I have taken the his- 
torical material available to the Pageant master, and — submit- 
ting that to drastic eliminations — selected only such elements of 
local history as take on national and world significances. These 
I have interpreted dramatically by means of a very few sym- 
bolic characters, who are themselves the spokesmen of great 
mass-groupings. 
To make clearer this difference of method in Pageant and 
Masque, let me exemplify: 

In the Pageant are presented as important persons of the 
white man's civilization at Saint Louis such local leaders as 
Pierre Laclede, Governor Piernas, St. Ange, Auguste Chouteau, 
Daniel Boone, etc. 

In the Masque, on the other hand, none of these historical 
persons appears, but — expressive of their several leaderships, 

xi 



PREFACE 



as well as of the racial and human forces of millions of their 
fellow citizens, during those successive generations — there rises 
in my Masque the single symbolic figure of Saint Louis. 

Again, in the Pageant certain particular fights, skirmishes, 
wars are dramatized or touched upon in historical episodes. 

In the Masque these are not introduced or referred to, but 
instead — typical of that menacing human force which underlies 
them all — there occurs a scene of dramatic spectacle and conflict 
of which again a single large, symbolic figure — the War Demon 
— becomes the spokesman of his vast group, in opposition to 
Saint Louis, who champions the counter forces of his contrasted 
groups. 

Visually, then, the outward symbols available to the Masque- 
maker differ largely from those available to the Pageant- 
maker. The armies of the War Demon may appropriately be 
clothed and equipped with any martial insignia, costumes, 
heraldry, harmonious with the dramatic idea. For them the 
historical uniforms of American soldiery would not be adequate 
or appropriate. 

By the same principle. Saint Louis appears in armor symbolic 
of a young crusader in the cause of social civilization, though 
the costume which he wears has probably never been worn 
historically on the geographical site of Saint Louis. 

Being thus free to ignore all literal minutiae of history, 
in form the Masque is more focussed and unified than 
the Pageant can necessarily be. The scope of its form and 
the inner relationship of its parts are determined wholly by the 
mind of its maker reacting on the materials of history at his 
disposal. In short, the Masque becomes a special form of 
drama, technically adapted — through range of eye and ear — to 
the special conditions: in this case to an auditorium and stage 
vast in scale. 

While to the eye the Masque should be always a moving 
decoration, and to the ear a pleasing harmony of sound, to both 
it should be essentially a human drama, interpretive of the 
large meanings of that life which is its poetic theme. 

xii 



PREFACE 



The theme of my Masque is the fall and rise of social civiliza- 
tion. 

Interpreting symbolically the historical material of Saint 
Louis, I have conceived the national and world meanings of 
that material as revealing the lapse and resurgence of man in 
the evolution of a more highly socialized state. 

For centuries, perhaps for ages, the Mound Builders sustained 
on this continent — notably on the site and in the vicinity of 
Saint Louis — a civilization of a comparatively high order, con- 
temporary with the Maya and Aztec civilizations to the south. 

To interpret this mound-building society on the scale of its 
world meanings in the Western Hemisphere, I make use of a 
single symbolic figure — Cahokia, who stands for the pinnacle 
of the social aspirations of the Indian race, regarded ethnologi- 
cally. The fall of this mound-building civilization took place 
through the invasion not of human agencies, but of wild nature 
forces — the invasion of the hordes of the bison. Because of 
that invasion (according to the now accepted theory of the 
archeologists), the Indian race lapsed, and reverted from a stage 
of agriculture and many simple social crafts and arts to the 
nomad hunting stage of man. In that reverted social state 
tribes of their descendants were discovered by Columbus and 
the early European explorers. 

My Masque, then, opens at that significant world-moment 
when Cahokia — a lonely, tragic figure, symbolic of the fallen 
mound-building civilization — rises before his ruined temple, 
surrounded and threatened by the Elements and the Wild 
Nature Forces, among which his own kin, now degenerated to 
nomads forgetful of their former social empire, mingle their 
savage rites with the menacing powers of chaos. 

How, with the coming of the white man, my theme deals with 
the hopeful, resurgent powers of civilization, and with the forces 
of Gold, War, and Poverty, which in turn rise in the path of 
that civilization — the Masque itself sets forth. Here it is 
enough to say that the Masque technically expresses its theme 
by means of a few large rhythmic mass-movements of onward 

xiii 



PREFACE 



urge, opposition, recoil, and again the sweep onward towards its 
alluring goal — an harmonious socialized state of human 
society. 

It is also pertinent to point out that, for this world-scale 
interpretation, all symbols of the Red Race at its highest social 
status, as well as of the White Race, are appropriately available 
to the stage production of the Masque; and hence the use it 
makes of symbols both of the Maya and Aztec civilizations of 
the Red Race, and of the ancient, mediaeval, and modern civili- 
zations of the White Race. 

So much, then, for the technique and theme of my Masque. 

The execution of it implies a work of cooperation among the 
technical artists in charge of the production and the citizens of 
Saint Louis — a cooperation in which the artists share a happy 
zest and enthusiasm. 

The technical work is apportioned as follows: 

For the Masque itself, conceived and written by me, I have 
devised a structure of dramatic architecture of which, so to 
speak, the building materials are visual spectacle, pantomime, 
choral, and instrumental music, spoken and chanted poetry, and 
the dance. 

The nature of these materials makes clear at once that the 
resulting edifice must be executed by a cooperation of technical 
artists; and in this I am very fortunate in having the association 
of Mr. Joseph Lindon Smith and Mr. Frederick S. Converse. 

With both these artists I have had the pleasure of working 
harmoniously before: with Mr. Smith in the production of my 
Bird Masque, and with Mr. Converse — in addition to that 
masque — in the production of my play "Jeanne dArc" and 
the writing of two operas. 

Mr. Smith, distinguished for his work in the staging of many 
pageants and outdoor plays, brings to the Masque his expert 
knowledge of costuming, staging, and lighting. 

Mr. Converse has composed for it all of the music, consisting 
of sung choruses, chants, dance music, and incidental orchestra- 
tion. 

xiv 



PREFACE 



Thus cooperation — which is the human theme of the Masque 
— has entered into its production from the start, and is steadily 
widening out to an extension which hopefully will embrace the 
whole of a great modern city, and through Saint Louis to the in- 
terested attention of all American cities, and even across the 
seas to those of England and Europe. For I think before we 
have completed the large and exhilarating task before us, we 
shall realize that we have only begun a work of civic art and 
popular expression which will create splendid national and inter- 
national reactions in the years to come. 

Best of all, in Saint Louis itself are many thousand uncel- 
ebrated and sincere fellow Americans — workers in all fields of 
industry and human enterprise, vital with the life which alone 
can bring successful achievement to the dreams of civic artists: 
to these — both for the alleviation of what is humdrum in their 
lives, and for the expression of their own too-stifled dreams — to 
these we look for fellowship and goodwill in our festival task. 

Cooperation, then, is the watchword of Saint Louis in this 
plan of civic art. Art itself is a word too long made strange 
to the man and woman of daily work. Well, then, henceforth 
let it become less strange — and translated. Another word for it 
is happiness — the joy of expressing ourselves nobly, whoever we 
are. Cooperation is another word of the scholars and econo- 
mists. The man on the street has a plainer word for it: "get 
together." When throughout our country all of us shall get 
together for a real civic art, there will be a constructive revolu- 
tion in America — a renascence of joy in the life-work and lei- 
sure of every man, woman, and child. 

Not, however, merely to generalize in hopes for this, the 
Saint Louis committee is preparing to take a definite, significant 
step toward its accomplishment. This step is the plan to hold 
at Saint Louis, in connection with the May production, a 
unique civic conference. 

The idea for this conference suggested itself to me by reason 
of the marked success of a conference on "The Drama and 
Conservation," held in connection with the production of my 

XV 



PREFACE 



Bird Masquein New York (February 24, 1914). On that occasion, 
naturalists, museum directors, scientists, conservationists, con- 
vened — for perhaps the first time — with artists of the theatre for 
a common purpose: to discuss the civic uses of dramatic art as 
means for giving expression and pubHcity to important public 
causes related to the conservation of wild life and natural re- 
sources. This theme was discussed from many viewpoints by 
men and women notable in both fields, with enthusiasm and in- 
sight. 

In like manner, then — as related to the theme of the Masque 
here published — it occurred to me to suggest to the Saint Louis 
committee the following plan which, being heartily endorsed 
and adopted by them, has resulted as follows : 

The theme of the Masque culminates in a symbolic "league 
of the cities." But, back of the symbol, the Saint Louis pro- 
duction presents the reality. For the actors who impersonate 
the cities in the Masque are envoys, officially appointed by the 
mayors of the several cities. Thus by special invitation the 
Mayor of Saint Louis has requested the mayor of the largest 
city of each state in the Union (as well as the chief cities in 
South America and Canada) to send an official envoy — a man, 
in each case, representative in the field of civic art — whose 
function it is to act in the Masque by night and to sit in con- 
ference by day. 

At the date of this Preface, acceptances are coming in daily. 
Mayor Mitchell of New York, for instance, has recently ap- 
pointed Mr. Henry Bruere, City Chamberlain, as special 
envoy from that city. 

The underlying idea of the conference might be summed up 
thus: 

Civic pageants and masques are forms of an ancient art, newly 
rediscovered, involving an expert method for promoting soli- 
darity in community life. 

This art is the civic drama, and its proper pursuit and practice 
involve the cooperation of all the fine arts with the community 
spirit of all citizens. 

xvi 



PREFACE 

In connection, therefore, with the production of "The Pageant 
and Masque of Saint Louis," there is held a three days* confer- 
ence, at which envoys from the chief cities of the Western Hemi- 
sphere meet with others who are interested to discuss various 
aspects of this central issue, namely: 

The civic drama: Shall it be recognized and established as the 
most effectual means for the art expression^ publicity, and co- 
operation of modern cities? 

From such a conference of cities, representing states and 
nations, vital and permanent reactions may well be anticipated. 
It is the hope of the Saint Louis committee that all workers in the 
cause of sociology and of art, who can, will attend it. More 
than any other feature of the city's festival, it lends practicality 
and prophecy to the theme of this Masque. 

In the cause of war, cities before now have banded themselves 
together for defence or aggression. But never perhaps before 
this have official envoys convened, and acted their parts in 
symbol and reality, to create for civic art a League of the Cities. 

Percy MacKaye. 
New York, 
March 28, 1914. 



xvu 



PERSONS AND PRESENCES IN 
THE MASQUE* 

PERSONS 
I. SPEAKING PERSONS 

CAHOKIA (I). 

Mississippi (I). 

Saint Louis, the Child (I). 

The One with the Lions 1 

The One with the Lilies I Discovereis (I). 

The One with the Cross J 

SAINT LOUIS, the Youth (II). 

The Pioneer (II). 

Gold (II). 

Europe (II). 

War (II). 

Poverty (II). 

Washington (II). 

New York (II). 

San Francisco (II). 

Chicago (II). 

New Orleans (II). 

Denver (II). 

Honolulu (II). 



Spokesmen of the 
League of Cities 



♦As here used, Persons symbolize forces of geography and history past 
and present; 

Presences symbolize forces of nature and imagination. 

The Roman Numerals signify that the Persons and Groups appear in 
Part I or Part II of the Masque. If they appear in the Prelude, or Interlude, 
the same is indicated in brackets. 



Y1T 



PERSONS AND PRESENCES 



2. CHORAL GROUPS 

The River Spirits (I). 
The Latin Nations (I). 
The Mediaeval Church (I). 

The Pioneers (II). 
The Earth Spirits (II). 
The World Adventurers (II). 
The War Demons (II). 
The Dark Pageant (II). 

3. PANTOMIME PERSONS 

The Pioneer Wrestler (II). 
The Tourney Rider (II). 
The Brooding Child (II). 

4. PANTOMIME GROUPS 

Pioneer Wrestlers (II). 

Earth Spirit Wrestlers (II). 

Europe (II). 

Africa (II). 

Asia (II). 

Australia (II). 

The Ocean Islands (II). 

The Knights (World Adventurers) (II). 

Cities of the Rivers (II). 

Cities of the Lakes (II). 

Cities of the Eastern Sea (II). 

Cities of the Western Sea (II). 

Cities of the Mountains (II). 

Cities of the Islands (II). 

Group of the Federal Capital (II). 

Cities of South America (II). 

Cities of Canada (II). 

Cities of England and Europe (II). 



PERSONS AND PRESENCES 



PRESENCES 



I. SPEAKING PRESENCES 



WASAPEDAN, The Great Bear (I, II). 
Imagination (II). 



2. CHORAL PRESENCES 

[single] 

Hiloha — The Element of Heat (I, II). 
Noohai — The Element of Cold (I, II). 

[groups] 

The Wild Nature Forces (I). 
THE STARS (I, II, Interlude). 



3. PANTOMIME PRESENCES 

[single] 

The Life Spirit (Interlude). 
The Eagle (II). 

[groups] 

Spirits of the Mound Builders (Prelude). 

Elves (I). 

Will-o'-the-Wisps (I). 

Dryads (I). 

Fauns (I). 

Spirits of the Years (Interlude). 

xxi 



CHORAL SONGS 



CHORAL SONGS* 

Chorus of the Wild Nature Forces (I). 
Star Chorus to the Great Bear (I). 
Chant of the River Spirits (I). 
Hymn of the Latin Nations (I). 

Star Chorus of the Climbing Years (Interlude). 

Chorus of the Pioneers (II). 
Chorus of the Earth Spirits (II). 
Chorus of the World Adventurers (II). 
Dirge of the Women in Dun (II). 
Star Chorus of the World Builders (II). 



THE ACTIONt 



THE TIMEt 

From the prehistoric age of the mound-builders in America 
to the present. 



*See Appendix, page 88. 
tSee Appendix, page 90. 
tSee Appendix, page 92. 



XXll 




THE SCENE 



The immediate foreground is a wide band of water curving 
backward with symmetrical sweep and disappearing behind 
foliage. 

Beheld across this water, the foreground of the stage is a 
vast plaza-space between two high towers. 

At centre, from the water's edge, wide steps of stone ascend 
to the stage's level. 

In the middle-ground, at centre, rises a flattened mound, to 
the level top of which rough steps lead up from the plaza. 
Rising from this mound-top level, steps mount to the entrance 
of a roofed shrine in semi-ruin. In this is a door with stone 
lintel. Above the roof is sculptured a huge semicircular sym- 
bol in stone. 

From the plaza at equal distances to right and left, two lesser 
mounds rise bare. 

In the background the facade of a great temple with two 
side wings (Mayan in architecture) shuts off the horizon. In 
these wings are gates of two wide entrances to the plaza. Near 
the top of the facade, along its full length, runs a stone jut, like 
the top of a Cyclopean wall. 

Shrine, temple, and towers resemble, in their architecture and 

I 



THE SCENE 



carvings, the ancient Aztec and Mayan relics of Central Amer- 
ica, in type Egyptian. 

All the foregoing features of the scene, however, are invisible 
when the Masque begins, and are only gradually revealed by 
mystic lightings during the early course of the action. 



PRELUDE 

CAHOKIA'S DREAM* 

Out of complete darkness mysterious music rises, pre- 
lusive to the appearance of a visionary scene on the plaza. 

There, before the central mound (as the music continues, 
descriptive), Spirits of the Mound-Builders perform the 
ceremonies of a prehistoric ritual. 

Slowly the dreamy ceremony disappears, gathered back 
into the night, leaving only the smoke of the smoldering 
ritual fire. 



*For fuller description see Appendix, page 85. 



THE MASQUE 
Part I 

Now in total darkness, the mood of the music, changing, 
sweeps to a wild burst of brass and wood-winds, mingled 
with rolling thunder. 

Simultaneously, as from mid-air, appear from tops of the 
towers two vast male figures, vaguely illumined — Hiloha 
and Noohai, the Elements of Heat and Cold. 

From Noohai — sculptured all of ice — gusts of snow and 
sleet fall, flurrying. The other, Hiloha, carved as from 
flame, is swathed in cloud, through which sharp light- 
nings flicker. 

From both these elemental figures bursts a great choral 
cry — each answering each through thunder — and the voice 
of each is as a male choir, crying "Cahokia!" 

At their cry, a shaft of lightning reveals Cahokia plucked 
out of darkness on the mound below. Risen from behind 
the ritual smoke, he appears there a colossal masked form,* 
garbed like an Aztec Indian priest, seated alone before 
the temple-shrine. 

Below him, mysterious, half-seen, at foot of the mound — 
crouched on its farther sides, and lurking in the dark back- 
ground — brute-headed forms of the Wild Nature Forces 
move and mingle with glimmering limbs of savages. 



*See Appendix, page 88. 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Cahokia sits with lifted face. 

Illumined intermittently by storm-flashes, he raises his 
arms and answers the cry of the Elements. 

THE ELEMENTS 
Cahokia! — Cahokia! 

CAHOKIA 
Hn6ha,Hn6ha,Noohai! 
Eternal fire, eternal cold, 
I feel you, and defy. 

THE ELEMENTS 

Cahokia! Cahokia! 

CAHOKIA 

Ai-ya! Alone — 
Alone above the desert hemisphere 
I rise from out my temple mound 
And Vait the coming world. 

THE ELEMENTS 
Cahokia! 

CAH6KIA 
Hearken, Hiloha ! Wind of fire ! 
Hear me, Noohai, Lord of cold! 

[As he speaks, the memories he describes are made visual 
by flitting vistas of scenes, illumined momentarily on the 
night background.] 

6 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Ten thousand moons, I reigned. Ten thousand moons 

My vanished people piled these mounds 

'Mid prayer and sacrifice — for me, 

For me, their father and their sagamore. 

And here I blessed their rites with social arts 

And solemn festivals, 

Till all their mounded homes were hives of song 

Stored with wild honey of the earth and stars. — 

Ai-ya ! Where hive they now? On golden dawns 

Who hears their seeding-song and harvest hymn? 

Ai-ya ! Their thousand moons 

Are ashes, and my empire is a dream. 

THE ELEMENTS 
Cahokia! 

CAHOKIA 
Hearken, Hiloha, Noohai! 
You now who mock me — 
You have destroyed them, 
My people ! — Out of your icy 
Caverns, Noohai, you loosened 
The billowing herds of your bison 
Over my cornlands, and wallowed 
My beautiful gardens. — Hiloha, 
You, then, you in your flame-cloud 
7 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Rose with your rivers, and flooded 
My broken hives and my ruined 
Temples. Ai-ya, my people ! 
Where are the tribes of Cah6kia? 
Lo, where the trails of twilight 
Hide them, naked and scattered. 
Luring them backward — backward 
Deeper in primal darkness, 
Masking with brutes, and mating 
In lairs of the jungle. Lo, now, 
They have forgotten their lordly 
Arts and the songs of my altar — 
All their great brotherhood. Yea, now, 
They have forgotten Cahokia, 
Me — me, their father! 

[Below him, from the dim, crouching forms, breaks a low 
choral cry, mingled with wolf-barks, whinnying noises of 
beasts, and the far war-yells of savages.] 

THE WILD NATURE FORCES 
Pooloo-pooloo-nool! 

CAHOKIA 
Hark where they call now 
Gods of their chaos! 
8 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



THE WILD NATURE FORCES 
Tee-hooklerrdh-tee! 

CAH6KIA 
They have forgotten me ! 

[Amid gusts of screaming wind, Hiloha and Noohai on 
the high towers renew their lightning and thunder and 
hailing snow. 

From below, the dissonant chorus rises harsher.] 

THE WILD NATURE FORCES 

Ydsca soomoohan 

Noohai! 
Pooloo-pooloo-nool 

Hiloha! 
Wdssoo shahdygan 
Tee-hooklerrdh-tee 

Noosdi! 

CAHOKIA 
O Night, and barking voices of wild fear, 
Cry to your chaos! 
Strike me, Hiloha ! Freeze, Noohai ! 
StiUI defy you! 
For still I dream — and wait ; 

9 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



And watchful dreaming overcomes the world. 
A thousand moons — they are a thousand sparks 
Blown from the kindled pipe of dreaming Time. 
Around his brow the cloudy incense curls, 
The clay bowl belches, the red lavas glow, 
And ashes darken as the dreams are born — 
The dreams are born and rise from ruined worlds. 

Ai-ya, my people departed ! 

Ai-ya, my temples forgotten! 

Yet am I patient. — 

Darken, Hiloha ! Fade, Noohai ! 

Still, still beyond you 

Gutter the glorious tribes of dreams eternal! 



[While he has spoken, the fading apparitions of the Ele- 
ments on the towers have vanished. And now, gradually 
— far up in the background above the Cyclopean wall of 
the temple-fagade, and ranged glittering on its ramparts — 
appear the Spirits of the Stars, grouped in their constella- 
tions: Orion, the Pleiades, the Scorpion, etc. Highest 
over all — a vast, silhouetted bulk on the sky, twinkling 
with the seven lights of the '* Dipper " — looms Wasap6dan, 
the Great Bear. 

While they are yet dawning, the Stars in chorus break 
into song — like the far carolling of choir-boys.] 

lO 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



CHORUS OF THE STARS 
Wdsapedan! WdsapedanI 

Wake from your lair! 
Watch through the dark your wild and 
desert places: 
Wonder is there, 

CAHOKIA 
Lo, now, they rise in dreams and overwhelm you, 
Hil6ha,Noohai! 

Hark, now, I hear them chanting, and Wasapedan, 
Eternal watcher of the lidless eyes, 
Wakes from his lair of stars. 

CHORUS OF THE STARS 

Wdsapedan^ the world is dim, 
The way to beauty is far — is far, 
And man, whose soul is a climbing star, 
Man our brother — comfort him! 

We, his watchers, we wheel in choir 
Of freedom calm and harmonious. 
But man, who reaches and cries to us — 
His guide is tempest, his paths are mire. 

Slowly he builds his golden hives. 
But the wild bees swarm to the winds again; 
II 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



His towers they crumble, his toil is vain; 
The sowers vanish, the seed survives. 

Wdsapedan, his ways are dim, 

But ours are shining, ethereal: 

And we, who hear him, his darkling call — 

Our star-born brother! — will comfort him, 

CAHOKIA 
O Voices of this solemn night, my soul! 
O singing clans of darkness, grouped in glory! 
You olden bards 

Immortal as the childhood of the earth, 
You, you, my elder brothers, ever young ! 
Sing me your tidings ! 

And you, Wasapedan, ancient Bear, 

Who by the Milky Way 

Watch with your sevenfold eye the shimmering world — 

Tell me what you behold beneath your gaze, 

O Wasapedan! 

WASAPfiDAN 
[His voice is a deep male voice, echoed by choir-boy 
voices in antiphony.] 

Hope I behold, Cahokia. 

CAHOKIA 
What is the hope you behold there? 

12 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



WASAPEDAN 
Life and new labor. 

CAHOKIA 

Who brings me 
Life out of death? 

WASAPfiDAN 

Mississippi. 

CAHOKIA 
How shall his spirit restore me 
Seed for new harvest? 

WASAPEDAN 

He wanders 
To ends of the earth. 

CAHOKIA 

But what token 
Has he attained there? 

WASAPEDAN 

AchUd. 

CAHOKIA 

Ha! 
Child of my loins — of my red race 
13 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Shall he restore me, to build now 
Mounds for my temples once more? 

WASAPfiDAN 

Nay! 
Child of a new race he brings you — 
Pale as a star-child, and starry 
Glitters the sword in his hand. 

CAHOKIA 

Now 
Speak, Wasapedan ! What means his 
Sword and its mission? 

WASAPfiDAN 

He brings it 
To fight for the rights of the star-born - 
Freedom and brotherhood. 

CAHOKIA 

So, then, 
He shall inherit my battles 
Bolder to wage them, and nobler 
Temples to build on my mound- tops. 
O Wasapedan, my heart beats 
Higher to welcome him. When, ah, 
When shall I greet him? 
14 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



WASAPEDAN 

Behold him! 

Lo, where the Father of Waters 

Brings now the white child ! 

[From the sky region of the Bear, a shooting-star flies 
trailing across the dark and falls beyond the bend of the 
waters on the south. Following it with his gaze, Cahokia 
gives a long, joyous cry.] 

CAHOKIA 

El-a-ho! 

[Round the far bend of the waters appears the prow of 
an immense canoe, fantastic with totem carvings and an- 
cient Mayan symbols. In the painted prow stands Mis- 
sissippi — a masked figure of great stature, murky yellow, 
with huge flowing beard of yellow, and body adorned with 
river-reeds. 

The canoe is manned by his River Spirits, of whom the 
central group bear upraised on their heads and bended 
arms a litter of rushes. 

On this stands a little child — a strong-limbed boy — 
with golden hair. Beside him, perpendicular, shines a co- 
lossal sword. 

Mysterious, the barge comes gliding. With rhythmic 
splash of paddles, the River Spirits raise now singly, now 
in chorus, their chanting song. Before them and circling 
them round, dark-stained swimmers plunge and gleam in 
the phosphorescent waters. 

Wasapedan slowly fades from the sky.] 

IS 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



THE RIVER SPIRITS 

[Chanting as they come.] 
Awwa, dwway tdmunoonoo! 
Water-boy, water-boy, 

Where shall we bear thee ? 
Seepoo, seepoo, dpilossahl 
River-child, river-child, 
Where wilt thou rest ? 

Son of the sunrise, 
Born of the sea-wave. 

Here shall thy home be: 
Far in the sunset. 
Where the lone sagamore 

Waits in the west. 

Here his pale cornlands 
Parch for thy coming: 

Thou shall restore them. 
Here his dim forests. 
Marshes and prayer-mounds 

Greet thee their guest. 

Here shall the earth spirits, 
Iron-dumb ages. 

Sing as they serve thee; 
i6 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Here, the wild eagle 
Tamed by thy sky-sword 
Build thee his nest. 

Awwa, dwwa, weeweethustin! 
Water-star, water-star , 

Bright is thy wonder! 
KeetsoOj keetsoo, moiakeeta! 
Conqueror, conqueror, 

Here he thy quest! 

[Disembarking at the central steps of stone, Mississippi 
moves toward the mound. Behind him flows, from his 
shoulders, an enormous undulating sachem's cloak, shim- 
mering with pearly shells, and upheld by two score of his 
murky-limbed followers. Before him, high on the rush- 
litter, is borne the child. Still at a distance, Mississippi 
hails the giant figure on the mound.] 

MISSISSIPPI 
Eleo, Cahokia ! 

CAHOKIA 

[Answering.] 
Yo, Mississippi ! 

MISSISSIPPI 
[Approaching, pauses with his followers.] 
I who of old 
Bore to your people 

17 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Magical life 

Out of my mystery, 

I and my swimming 

Sons now have borne you — 

Out of the mist — 

Hither this star-child. 

CAHOKIA 

Dear is the star-child — 
Darling as April 
To my dark winter. 

MISSISSIPPI 
[Pointing toward the litter before him. 

Here for his hand 
I bring this sword-blade: 
Forged in star-fire 
It fell in thunder 
Flaming to his feet. 
To-day too mighty 
For him to heave it, 
Yet on the morrow 
It shall avail him. 
So spoke the star- voice. 
i8 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



CAHOKIA 
Yea, Wasapedan's 
Tongue has foretold 
How he shall wield it 
For freedom and brotherhood. 

[Lifted from the litter, the child and sword are borne 
upward on shoulders of the River Spirits to the mound's 
top, and placed before Cahokia —the sword planted upright 
in the earth.] 

MISSISSIPPI 

Here on your ancient 

Mound — here I leave them: 

Cherish the child; 

Guard well his token. 

[Turning, Mississippi departs with the Spirits, and re- 
embarks. Standing once more in his prow, he calls back 
toward the mound.] 

Eleo, Cahokia! 

CAHOKIA 

[Answering.] 

Yo, Mississippi! 

[Moving toward the north, the paddled canoe and the 
swimmers disappear at the bend of waters, chanting again 
their song: 

19 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Awwa, dwwa, weeweethustin! 
Water-star y water-star, 
Bright is thy wonder! 

As the chant dies away, Cahokia gazes at the child, who 
stands beneath the hilt of the shining sword. While 
Cahokia speaks, the child approaches him and nestles 
against his vast knees.] 

CAHOKIA 
Rejoice, O heart of pain ! Be glad ! 
My dream is a strong child. — Rejoice, 
Dear starry voices of my soul ! 
My dream is a fair child, and shall go forth 
Amid the strength of men, to vanquish there 
The dreamless multitudes, and smite 
The blind with vision. — Sing, O heart of peace ! 
For all that through unnumbered ages slept 
Dark and unused, has waked in him, to build 
New mounds of wonder. — Old ! Old ! I am old ! 
But he is young; 

Ah, he is stripling, bold and wildly fair: 
My dream is a strong child, and shall restore me! 

[At his exultant cry, Hiloha and Noohai — on their 
towers — flicker palely to life again; quick thunder rolls 
menacingly; the Wild Nature Forces crowd forward out 
of the dusk, resuming their chorus.] 

20 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



THE WILD NATURE FORCES 

Ydsca soomoohan, 
Noohdil 

CAHOKIA 

[Reaching for the child in dread.] 

Hearken ! the tribes of darkness cry once more. 
They rise to claim him, too ! — Ai-ya, my dream ! 
Old, I am old, and cannot war to save thee ! 

[With loud yellings, the Wild Nature Forces leap up 
from their places of shadow, and from behind them, through 
the deep entrances at back, hundreds more of their fierce 
shapes — forms masked with heads of wolves, bison, bears, 
and horned antelopes, garbed like aborigines in hides of 
beasts — rush forward tumultuous, in live, rhythmic waves, 
and surround the mound. There, mingled with feathered 
Indians, they dance wildly to the war-beat of tom-toms, 
and the chant of their ululating cries.] 

THE WILD NATURE FORCES 

Pooloo-pooloo-nool 

Hilohaf 
Wdhsoo shahdygan 
Tee-hooklerrdh-tee 

Noosdi! 

[Circling nearer in their dance, the wild forms swarm 
upward and close in around Cahokia and the child.] 

21 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



CAHOKIA 
Ai-ya, my star-child! 
Wield thy great sword now 
And save thee. 

[Stepping forward beside the enormous upright sword, 
the child clutches it with both hands, and struggles to 
raise it. 

Slowly he does so, staggering beneath its bulk. 
\ Pausing in their dance, the beast faces stare at him 
startled, glowering, murmurous. 

Returning their gaze boldly, the child stands watching 
with arms upraised. Holding above him the glittering 
sword, the huge blade wavers there and sways in his 
small grasp. 

So, for a silent instant, he faces the wild hordes. 

Suddenly, then, from the south bend of the waters below, 
resounds the deep boom of a gun. 

The wild forms turn their heads, harking. 

It booms again. 

Tossing their horns, with sharp clamor, the wild shapes 
swarm down the mound sides, and pause there. 

A third time it booms. They rush into the darkness 
and vanish. 

Above, on the mound, the great sword falls from the 
hands of the child.] 

CAHOKIA 

[Reaching his arms.] 
Wonder and awe they have saved thee! 

22 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Come to me, star-child! 

[The child laughs aloud and runs to him, climbing to 
his knee. There he stands upright, alert, watching the 
far bend of the waters. 

Behind them in the heavens, the Great Bear glows again 
and calls.] 

WASAPfiDAN 

Cahokia! 

[Hearing the starry choir-voice, the child starts and 
looks upward. 
Cahokia points with his hand. 
The child turns and gazes.] 

CAHOKIA 

Lo, Wasapedan ! — He watches 
Once more the waters. 
[Calling.] 

Who comes now, 
O Wasapedan? 

WASAPfiDAN 
Discoverers. 

CAHOKIA 

Whence have they wandered? Who are they? 
23 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



WASAPEDAN 
Out of the loins of Rome, 
Sired by olden Apollo, 
Sprang they: 

Flaunting their lilies and lions, 
Speaking with mouths of fire. 
Bearing the cross of the Crucified, 
They wander the world ! 

CAHOKIA 
Dark are your words to me. 

WASAPEDAN 

Bright are their banners ! 
Behold them! 

[Fading swiftly, Wasapedan disappears. 

Below on the water a flush, as of dawn, spreads rapidly. 

Out of the dawning rises the chant of male choirs, sing- 
ing the '' Veni Creator." The sound draws nearer. Round 
the river bend now enters a pageant of ships.* 

First and unobtrusive, in dusk light, while Wasapedan is 
still speaking, has come a group of simple canoes of bark, 
in which are monks and priests in brown and black, bearing 
wooden crosses. These are followed by a burst of ruddy 
light, through which emerge the prows and decks of medi- 
aeval galleons. 



"See Appendix, page 89. 

24 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Bristling with spears and rich standards, mounted with 
cannon, flaunting the flags and insignia of France and 
Spain, the ships come sailing toward the steps of landing. 
Their rowlocks are manned with mediaeval sailors, their 
decks crowded with men and women of the Latin nations, 
brilhantly clothed. 

In the central ship of all, rounding from the middle 
above the highest deck, rises a glowing sphere. On this 
is a group of three male figures, masked. 

Highest sits one in black, cowled and robed. His face 
looks upward, he holds a cross of gold. Lower on either 
side two others sit, gazing far off. One is garbed as a 
Knight in semi- armor; his aspect is Spanish; he holds a 
cup in his hand; beside him is a standard with lions. The 
other is garbed as a Trapper, a woodsman with head plumed; 
his aspect is French; in one hand he holds a trap; beside 
him is a banner with lilies. 

In the wake of the decked ships follows a group of 
barges, splendid with banners of the Church, shining with 
silver crosses, scarlet and gold with ecclesiastics and 
choirs. From these choir-barges rises the solemn song of 
"Veni Creator Spiritus." 

On shore, following the course of the river, a mediaeval 
land procession meets the onward-moving water pageant 
at the central landing. 

Disembarking there in many-hued lights as of sunrise, 
the mediaeval groups and processions of Church and 
Nations mount the now brightening spaces of the wide 
plaza, and, spreading, range themselves rank upon rank, 
coloring the fore and middle ground with stately groupings, 

25 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



which leave a broad central aisle leading to the steps of 
the mound. 

Up this aisle-space from the shore moves a dreamy 
float, previously disembarked from the deck of the central 
ship. 

The float consists of the glowing sphere, darkened by the 
masked figures of the Discoverers. Drawn by Elves and 
Will-o'-the-wisps, and followed by groups of Dryads and 
Fauns, it moves to the foot of the mound and pauses there. 

Cahokia addresses the figures. The child climbs down 
between his feet and stands listening.] 

CAHOKIA 

What heroes are you, who have come 
Over the waters, 

With chanting strange to my ears? 
You of the lions, what are you? 
Why have you come? 

[As Cahokia speaks, the glowing sphere turns dark, and 
one of the seated figures — the Knight with the standard 
of lions — flames with sudden radiance, and a trumpet 
sounds as he answers :] 

THE ONE WITH THE LIONS 
Imaginers of the old world 
We come to discover : 
New fountains of life are our quest. 
This cup in my hand I have borne 
26 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



To fill from your deserts, but there 
The will-o'-the wisps and the elves 
They lured me to drought. 
Yet here to your ancient mound 
They have drawn me now, to do homage 
Here to the white child. 

[As he concludes, a group of the Elves carrying long cat- 
tails dart up the steps of the mound to the level space. 
There, as the child, curious, steps forward, they encircle 
him, dancing, waving their spear-topped rushes. 

Below, on the plaza level, before the float, the other 
Elves and Will-o'-the-wisps dance in mysterious rings, 
flickering their swamp-lights. Dancing thus for a moment, 
they suddenly cease at the sound of a horn. Those on the 
mound fling high their cat-tail spears and scurry downward 
back to the lower level, behind the float and the mound. 
There the figure of the Knight has grown dark. 

The child, seizing one of the rush spears and flinging it 
high, laughs up at Cahokia, who speaks again. As he 
speaks, the second figure on the sphere — the Trapper — 
glows with flame light.] 

CAHOKIA 
And you of the lilies, whose call 
Is a winding horn, what brings 
You from the sunrise? 

[Again the mellow horn sounds and the Figure answers:] 
27 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



THE ONE WITH THE LILIES 

The lure of the sunset — the gold 
Of hazard, the joy of adventure: 
I came to discover 
Furs in your forest, but there 
Dryads and fauns of my dreams 
They followed to snare me bewildered 
And trapped me, the trapper. 
Yea, here to your ancient mound 
They follow me now, to do homage 
Here to the white child. 



[As he stops speaking, a group of little Fauns — garbed 
as squirrels and lynxes — spring up the steps of the mound 
and gambol before the child, flaunting their purple fleur- 
de-lis in their dance. 

Below, meanwhile, on the plaza-space, wild troops of 
Dryads — with chaplets and zones of blue lilies — dance 
before the sphere. 

The stroke of a big bell brings the dance to pause. 

On the mound the Fauns shower the child with fleur- 
de-lis and then scatter downward, all retiring as before 
behind the mound. 

On the darkened sphere now the Figures again are dark. 
Cahokia speaks, and while he does so, the central cowled 
Figure in black — the One with the Cross — glows upward 
as with purple fire.] 

28 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



CAHOKIA 

But you, in the gown of night, 
Whose call is a golden bell, 
What fiery sign do you bring 
Yonder? — Why come you? 

[Again the deep bell sounds, as the Figure answers:] 

THE ONE WITH THE CROSS 

I come to discover — and heal. 

I bring the Cross 

To feed new tribes with its fire; 

For the fire I bring burns not 

But heals the burning; 

And the rod I bring is a Shepherd's, 

And the lilies He sends are white. 

And His lilies I bring now, to christen 

Yonder the white child. 

[As he concludes, choir-boys in vestments of white, led 
by priests in black, mount the steps of the mound, bearing 
white liles and chanting low the "Veni Creator." 

Surrounding the child with their lilies, they raise the 
fallen sword and plant it again upright in the earth. 

Beside it the child kneels down. 

Once more the solemn bell sounds as the One with the 
Cross speaks in a deep voice:] 

29 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Now in the name of the Christ, 
Brother and lover of man, 
Rise and receive thy name: 
Rise — Saint Louis! 

[The child rises and touches the sword with his hand. 
As he does so, a burst of bells peals forth, resounding their 
chimes far across the water; the throngs of the Latin 
Nations raise their standards, the priests their banners, and 
thousands of voices shout with a vast shout: 

SAINT LOUIS! 

Simultaneously above the shrine, the semicircular sym- 
bol of the ancient ritual crumbles and disappears, and 
supplanting it — out of the air — appears a colossal cross 
burning with white fire. 

With the echoing cry of ^' Saint Louis,'' * all the parti- 
cipants in the scene, raising a hymn in chorus, begin now 
a stately moving pageant, marching by groups and blend- 
ing toward the huge exits in the background. There, as 
they disappear, the hymn dies in the distance.] 

THE HYMN 

[Chanted by all in chorus.] 

Venij creator Spiritus, 
mentes tuorum visita, 
imple superna gratia 
qucB tu creasti pectora: 



*See Appendix, page 89. 

30 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



qui Paraclitus diceriSy 
donum Dei altissimi, 
fons vivus, ignis J caritas, 
et spiritalis unctio. 

tu septiformis munerey 
dextrcB Dei tu digitus, 
tu rite promisso Fatris 
sermone ditas guttura. 

accende lumen sensihuSy 
infunde amor em coribuSy 
infirma nostri corporis 
virtute firmans perpeti, 

hostem repellas longiuSy 
pacemque dones protinus; 
ductore sic te prcevio 
vitemus omne noxium, 

per te sciamus da Patrem, 
noscamus afque Filiumy 
te utriusque Spiritum 
credamus omni tempore. 
31 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



sit laus Patri cum Filio, 
sancto simul Paraclito, 
nohisque mittat Filius 
charisma sancti Spiritus, 
Amen, 

[The full radiance which illumined the foreground has 
grown dim with the departing pageant, and now, to the far 
echoes, only Cahokia and the Child (still backed by the 
group of choir-boys) remain on the twilit mound. 

Before them, the cross-hilt of the upright sword stands 
gleaming; behind and above, the vaster Cross glows sol- 
emnly. Beyond it, from the sky, Wasapedan dawns again. 

Cahokia reaches his arms toward the Child, and speaks 
in deep tones.] 

CAHOKIA 

Child of my ancient dream 
Born from deep waters, 
Hearken the olden voice 
That spoke to me as a child, 

little Saint Louis. 

SAINT LOUIS 

[Gazing upward.] 

1 hearken, Cahokia! 

32 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



CAHOKIA 

[Calling aloud.] 

Wasapedan! Wasapedan! Reveal — 
Reveal now his mission! 

WASAPEDAN 
Hearken the law of the stars: — 
Out of the formless void 
Beauty and order are born. 
One for the all, all in one, 
We wheel in the joy of our dance. 
Brother with brother 
Sharing our Hght, 
Build we new worlds 
With ancient fire. 
Only together 
Lovers are free : 
Love is our labor, 
So labor is joy. 
[Wasapedan fades and vanishes.] 

CAHOKIA 
Child, dost thou hearl^en? 

SAINT LOUIS 

Iharli! 
I hark — and will remember ! 
33 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



CAHOKIA 
Feel, then, that voice as a flame 
To kindle the blade of thy sword. 
Fight with the formless void 
For beauty and order to triumph. — 
Bear now Saint Louis his sword 
Before him into my temple — 
Mine now no more ! 
Gods and their sybils depart: 
God is eternal. 

[Uplifting the great sword, the choir-boys bear it horizon- 
tally before Saint Louis up the steps into the temple 
shrine. In the doorway the Child turns and stretches 
forth his arms to Cahokia, who calls:] 

Farewell, Saint Louis! — Remember! 

SAINT LOUIS 
I will remember, Cahokia! 
[Bending his arm to his face, he goes into the temple. 
For an instant, on the tops of the towers, the vague 
forms of the Elements flicker ruddily. 
Low thunder murmurs. 

Cahokia upraises both arms. Before him a mist begins 
to rise. He calls in the pausing thunder:] 

CAHOKIA 
Ai-ya, Hiloha, Noohdi! 
You, too, I leave now. 
34 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



No more shall Cahokia dwell 
Upon the earth. 

His memory shall be as a flintshard, 
His name — a mound. 
For now will I sleep with my people. — 
O glad I He down with my people 
To slumber there; 
For I am old, old — forgotten ; 
But not my Dream : 

My Dream is a strong child, and shall survive 
me! 

[The upcreeping mists cover now in clouds all but his 
lifted face.] 

Dawn — dawn, you holy stars! 
Hail, Wdsapedan! 

[Swathed now in the risen mists, his giant form is wholly 
hidden. 
A gust of wind blows the mists, dispersing them. 
Nothing is there. 

Above the temple, the faint cross pales and vanishes. 
All now is silence — and the dark. 



35 



INTERLUDE 



Out of the dark — mellow, shrilly-sweet, far — sounds 
now the chorus of Stars. 

These, as they dawn in the background, cluster the sky- 
plane with their constellations. 

Meanwhile, as their voices hold the listening ear, a 
dreamy pageant, far up, lures the eye of the beholder. 

From behind the shadowy height of the temple wings, 
a moving frieze of figures appears, ascending through solemn 
lights, and passes along the top from either wing to the 
centre of the main facade — a frieze symbolic of the passing 
years, the falling, faltering, onward groping souls of human 
generations, as they vaguely aspire from the dusk. 

Among the contrasted groupings of Day and Night, 
Faith and Doubt, Maid and Mother, and labor-bowed Man, 
moves the Life Spirit — a flame-colored Figure with wings, 
beckoning them onward, and followed ardently by groups 
of children and strong youths. 



37 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



CHORUS OF THE STARS 

What of the years — the years — 

A s they yearn on earth ? 
Day and dark are their gliding tears, 
And the heart of man is their urn, 
And maiden brings flame and mother gives birth 

As they yearn. 

What of the souls — the souls 

As they climb toward God ? 
Doubt and faith are their darkling goals. 
And they soar, or sink in the slime. 
And demon clambers where angel trod. 

As they climb. 



Lonely they wander, apart 
From the joy they cherish: 

Lonely of heart 
They perish. 

Only to rise again 

At the fall of an angeVs feather. 
Out of their separate pain 

Climbing together. 

38 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Lord of the years — • the years 

As they yearn from earth, 
Life goes forth with his pioneers, 
And the planets shake as he sings. 
And out of the slime he laughs in the mirth 

Of his wings, 

[Attaining the centre verge of the facade wall, the flame- 
colored Figure looses there a live bird. Instantly around 
it, from the air, hundreds of other live wings burst into 
light — white doves that hover upward swaying, and beat 
against the dark in circling splendor. 

So, like a mirage, the pageant vanishes.] 



39 



THE MASQUE 
Part II 

Below now — in the foreground plane — the mound and 
temple again become visible. 

Within the temple-shrine slowly a ruddy glow appears 
and increases. 

From the background, low rumbling begins, as of drums; 
from far off come male voices singing in chorus — a tramp- 
ling music, which deepens and increases. 

THE CHORUS 

Where shall we camp — camp — camp 
When the blinding day is over ? 
On the coyote^ s track. 
Where the ford runs black, 
And the wood-cat cries 
When the wolf creeps back, 
And our stallions stamp — stamp. 
With the hungering wind for stover. 

[The marching of many people now is heard through 
the great entrances in the background, and there the 
Pioneers begin to pour through in thronging groups. 

Around them the chorus of unseen singers grows loud 
and resounding.] 

41 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



CHORUS OF PIONEERS 

What were we told — told — told 
By our smouldering fires in story ? 
How the rivers run 
To the sunken sun 
Over blood-bright sand, 
And every one 
Is bloody with gold — gold, 
And their torrents are red with its glory, 

[Garbed like miners and rangers, carrying axes, picks, 
scythes, rifles, etc., the Pioneers move forward, marching 
in widespread numbers, to the right and front of the 
mound. 

In their midst rides a tall Figure (the Pioneer), garbed 
like the others, but masked in a sculptured face of rugged 
feature. Mounting the lesser mound on the right, he 
pauses there, grouped about by his foot followers. 

Meanwhile the chorus becomes, for the filling plaza 
spaces, a reverberating background of song.] 

CHORUS OF PIONEERS 
Whom shall we call — call — call 
In our hunger of life to feed us? 
On the heart that^s young 
With a song unsung^ 
And the hand that reaps 
Where the grain is flung y 
42 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



And the forests fall — fall: 

In the lust of our youth he shall lead us! 

[Seated upon his horse upon the lesser mound, the 
Pioneer lifts one arm and fires in the air a pistol shot, 
calling aloud:] 

THE PIONEER 
Saint Louis! 

ALL THE OTHERS 
[Raising their axes and weapons, with a great shout.] 

Saint Louis ! Saint Louis ! 

[From within the mound-shrine the glow has increased 
to a brilliant radiance, through which now comes forth 
the shining figure of a Youth, clothed in the silvery chain- 
armor of a crusader, with mantle of white. In his fillet 
burns a white star. 

Pausing at the top of the temple steps, he holds before 
him the glowing sword.] 

THE YOUTH 
Who calls Saint Louis? 

THE PIONEER 

Your comrades of life : 
We, — pioneers. 

THE OTHERS 
Pioneers! 

43 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



SAINT LOUIS 

Hail! — Glad hail, 
Comrades — my comrades ! What tidings? 

THE PIONEER 

We bear 
Tidings of labor and battle : Our trails 
Blaze with desire and danger and hope 
Born of to-day. For to-morrow is dim, 
Yesterday — dead. But to-day, here are fields 
Waiting to sow; here are forests to fell. 
Floods to span, mines to shaft, blood to spill, wives to 

win. 
Cities to stablish. Now lead us, to-day ! 
Lead us, Saint Louis! 

THE OTHERS 
Lead us, Saint Louis! 

SAINT LOUIS 
My comrades, your call 
Quickens my heart ! for you call in my name 
More than myself. Now within me you call 
America — youth — our dear country, and these — 
These make answer : Yes ! — Yes, I will lead you to-day ! 

THE PIONEER 
Show us your sign. 

44 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



THE OTHERS 
Show your sign! 

SAINT LOUIS 

See — this sword! 
Here on this mound I received it — a child, 
Handed me down from the night and the stars. 
Lo, on my brow that remembrance still burns! 
Now for our day this shall be as an axe, 
Yea, as a scythe, as a spade, and a lance, 
Sharpened to serve and to lead you in fight. 

THE PIONEER 
Hail to the sword! 

THE OTHERS 
Hail the sword! 

SAINT LOUIS 

O my friends, 
Comrades in hope and desire ! Our dreams — 
All the young lusts of our hearts — shall be ours, 
Won by this sword, and the strength of your hands! 
Not — not alone will I wield it : but you — 
All of you — with me ! What now can withstand — 
Who shall defy us? 

45 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



[To the glad ringing of his voice, suddenly a huge rum- 
bling answers; an earthquake shock totters the temple 
shrine; Saint Louis staggers, the sword is flung from his 
hands, the thronging Pioneers sway, grasp the air startled, 
or fall to the ground, as the earth at the foot of the mound 
opens with ruddy Ught, and a tall athlete form, all golden, 
emerges like a spirit, and stands below Saint Louis, up- 
lifting his menacing sceptre.] 

THE SPIRIT 

I — / and my serfs, 
We, the Earth Spirits, defy you! 

THE PIONEERS AND ADVENTURERS 

[Staring and pointing.] 

Gold! Gold! 

SAINT LOUIS 

[Starting up and grasping his sword.] 

Spirit, what are you? Speak ! 

THE SPIRIT 

Gold! — I am Gold: 
I am the element, earthborn to be 
IVIaster and maker of men. To my wand 
All the earth elements rise from their mire 
IVIinions of me — me, their spokesman and lord. 
Lo, now, behold where they rise! 
[Lifting his wand, he calls] : 

46 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Ho! — Ee-yo! 
Copper and Silver! — Yo, Iron and Glass! 
Lead and Aluminum ! — Ho, from your loins 
Brass and bright Steel, and more of your mating! 
Yo, now — all molten — arise, and among you 
Forest, and Fur of the forest — upstand! 
Rise to my power and grapple with man ! 

[To his call and lifted sceptre, the ground, opening now 
in various places, belches forth green, blue, yellow, and 
silver fire, through which pour upward the Earth Spirits. 
Large athlete forms, laden with gleaming chains, they 
group themselves about the central masked figures of the 
several Elements. 

Among them, through shadowy twilight, rise Forest and 
Fur and their sylvan followers. 

While their shapes are thus appearing, the chorus of 
their subterranean voices rises with them.] 

CHORUS OF THE EARTH SPIRITS 

Outof the womb of earth 

Old, old 
We come to birth: 
Chained to the sward 
We serve thee, our lord 

Gold! 

47 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Czars of all weaker. 
The soul of our seeker 

We slay: 
Slaves of the vaster 
Soul who can master — 

Him we obey. 
Who is more lordly than Gold? — 
Let him he hold! 

Only our lord we obey, 

GOLD 

Welcome, my earth-people! 

THE EARTH SPIRITS 
Ee-yo! Ee-yo! 

THE PIONEER 
Look where they stand and defy us ! Saint Louis, 
Lead us, Saint Louis! 

THE PIONEERS 
Lead us, Saint Louis! 

GOLD 

[Tauntingly.] 

Saint Louis! — A bout! 
So I make challenge 1 

48 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



[He hurls his wand of gold at Saint Louis' feet. Saint 
Louis seizes it up, and lifts it high.] 

SAINT LOUIS 

So, Gold, I accept! 

Beautiful, strong are your Earth Spirits — yours 

Henceforth no more, but mine, mine! From your 

power 

Now I will free them : Their chains shall be loosed ; 

Girders and intricate wheels shall they forge 

Henceforth to serve me and Him whom I serve; 

Wings for their glorious bodies, yea wings 

Shall raise them to strive for my race of the stars. 

Stand forth, my comrades — you. Pioneers! 

One I will choose now to wrestle with Gold. 

Choose you the others, to grapple with yonder 

Earth Spirits. 

[From the Pioneers a band of athlete wrestlers, flinging 
off their cloaks, step forward with a shout:] 

THE WRESTLERS 

Hail ! — Hail, Saint Louis ! 

[At a sign from Gold, a band of the Earth Spirits stride 
forward from the other side, calling aloud:] 

THE EARTH SPIRITS 

HaH, Gold! 
49 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



SAINT LOUIS 

[Pointing his sword toward the tallest of the wrestlers.] 

Him now I choose, to meet Gold. 

[From the sword's blade a flying globe of fire falls at the 
feet of the wrestler.] 

Come before me! 

GOLD 

Now meet with your matcli, Pioneer! — To the mound! 

[Springing forward, the Wrestler mounts the mound steps, 
together with Gold, and stands on the level space below 
Saint Louis.] 

SAINT LOUIS 

Now in my name, Pioneer, wrestle well! — 

Ready! 

THE WRESTLERS AND EARTH SPIRITS 
[Below.] 
Ho, ready I 

[Above, on the mound, the chosen Wrestler and Gold, 
stripped to grapple, confront each other. 

Below, on the cleared central space of the plaza, the 
athlete Pioneers and Earth Spirits — a band of some hun- 
dred or more, opposed in couples — stand with arms reached, 
awaiting the signal. The bodies of the Earth Spirits are 
still bound about by their metal chains. 

On the highest step before the temple's entrance, Saint 
Louis raises his sword perpendicularly and cries aloud:] 

50 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



SAINT LOUIS 

Now! 

[Swiftly bringing down the sword, he strikes it clanging 
on the stone. 

Above and below, on the two levels, the wrestlers grapple 
— the lower level lying in half shadow. 

Clutching, swaying, sliding in lights and glooms, the 
wonderful bodies strain for victory. 

Massed on either side, the crowded Pioneers and Earth 
Spirits watch and murmur. 

Suddenly Saint Louis lets fall his sword, and grasps 
toward his fillet. 

Gold has downed the Pioneer, and a vast exulting shout 
rises from the watching Earth Spirits.] 

THE EARTH SPIRITS 
Gold! Gold! 

SAINT LOUIS 

[Calls above them.] 

One down! 

Stay! 

[Below, on the plaza level, the Wrestlers pause momen- 
tarily. Saint Louis strides down the steps toward Gold 
and the Pioneer Wrestler, reaching his hand toward the 
latter.] 

Take the star! 

51 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



GOLD 
Ho, I win! 

SAINT LOUIS 

Two in three! 

[To the Wrestler.] 

Rise, Pioneer, and wear now this star! 

[Plucking the star from his fillet, Saint Louis hands it, 
glowing, to the Wrestler, who places it on his own forehead, 
where it shines.] 

None can down Gold who fights for himself. 
Fight for our star 1 Wrestle well I 

[Ascending again, Saint Louis lifts his sword perpen- 
dicularly for the sign.] 

Ready! — Now! 

[Again the sword clangs. 
Again the wrestling proceeds on both levels. 
Now Saint Louis raises his sword horizontally, and a 
great, joyous cry breaks from the watching Pioneers. 
The Wrestler has downed Gold.] 

THE PIONEERS 
Louis ! Saint Louis ! The Star ! 

SAINT LOUIS 

Still once more! 
Hold! — The third bout: — Ready! — Now! 

52 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



[Again the sword clangs. 

The wrestlers clutch. 

On the shadowy lower level, the silent grappling grows 
more keen, and many are downed on both sides. But 
the eyes of the watchers are riveted on the illumined mound. 

There now Saint Louis' sword swings outward again 
horizontally. 

Gold is downed again, and the watching Pioneers shout 
more wildly.] 

THE PIONEERS 

Louis ! Saint Louis ! The Star ! 

[The clamor grows tumultuous and, swelling above the 
shouts, the song of the deep chorus reverberates once 
more.] 

[CHORUS] 
Whom shall we call — call — call 
In our hunger of life to feed us ? 
On the heart thafs young 
With a song unsung. 
And the hand that reaps 
Where the grain is flung, 
And the forests fall — fall: 
In the lust of our youth he shall lead us! 

[SHOUTS] 
Louis ! Saint Louis ! The Star ! 

S3 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



[In the foreground, the Wrestling Pioneers have led to 
the foot of the mound the conquered Earth Spirits, who 
kneel there below Saint Louis — each beside his opponent, 
who stands. 

Great green and gray banners of Forest and Fur are 
held by the other Pioneers, at left and right. 

Saint Louis, receiving back the star from the Wrestler, 
speaks from above to those below.] 

SAINT LOUIS 

Comrades, the star — our star is victorious! 
Rise now, my Earth Spirits! — You, Pioneers, 
Strike off their chains now: wings shall be theirs — 
Wings! — for to-morrow they fly in my service. 

[The Earth Spirits rise, and their chains are struck off 
by their conquerors. 

Meanwhile Gold, who has lain crouched beneath the win- 
ning Wrestler, leaps to his feet with a defiant gesture, and 
cries to Saint Louis:] 

GOLD 

Strike off their chains, O Saint Louis ! yet I — 
/ will forge new ones to fetter their wings ! 
Gold is not downed by one wrestling. Farewell ! 
Fare worse, for again I will meet and defy you! 

[Seizing up his fallen sceptre. Gold springs to the back 
edge of the mound and stands there for an instant.] 

54 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



SAINT LOUIS 
Welcome the grappling, whenever we meet ! 
Hail, Gold! 

GOLD 
[Raising his sceptre, threateningly.] 
Long hail — and defiance! 

[With a last fierce gesture, Gold plunges into the dark- 
ness behind the mound.] 

SAINT LOUIS 

[Pointing to the Earth Spirits, speaks to those who 
stand guard over them.] 

Release them! 

[To mysterious blowing of unseen trumpets, the Earth 
Spirits pass, with their loosened chains, behind the great 
banners and emerge on the other side, clothed in fiery 
wings of many colors, like the hues of their own metallic 
bodies. 

Saint Louis speaks to all assembled.] 

SAINT LOUIS 
Now freedom and strong brotherhood prevail 
Amongst us, and the soul of these be blown 
World-far — America! 

[Like an echo, magnified by a multitude of voices far 
away, a choral answer comes murmuring: "America!" 
Saint Louis starts and listens. 
55 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Then a deep Voice — circled as with boy choirs — resounds 
from the sky, but no visual sign appears there.] 

THE VOICE 
Saint Louis! 

SAINT LOUIS 

Hark! 
What voice? 

THE VOICE 
Saint Louis! 

SAINT LOUIS 

Wasapedan's voice! 
He calls, even as of old. 

THE VOICE 
They come. 

SAINT LOUIS 

Who come, 
O darkling voice? 

THE VOICE 
The World Adventurers. 

[From the right background there enters now a mul- 
titude of men and women, garbed in the native costumes 
of all nations. 

Preeminent among them, on horseback, ride five masked 

56 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



figures, symbolic of Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the 
Ocean Islands. These take their stands in various parts of 
the plaza, right, surrounded by their followers. 

On the lesser mound, Europe towers highest from 
amongst them. 

As the multitude enters and moves forward, marching, 
voices of the unseen chorus (male and female voices) pre- 
cede and resound from their midst.] 

CHORUS OF THE WORLD ADVENTURERS 

A star — a star in the west ! 

Out of the wave it rose: 
And it led us forth on a world-far quest; 
Where the mesas scorched and the moorlands froze 

It lured us without rest: 

With yearning J yearning — ah! 
It sang (as it beckoned us) 

A music vasty adventurous — 
America! 

[Merging their ranks with the Pioneers, who welcome 
them in pantomime, the World Adventurers mass them- 
selves about the central and the lesser mound (on the 
right), while the chorus still resounds.] 

CHORUS OF THE WORLD ADVENTURERS 

A star — a star in the night ! 

Out of our hearts it dawned ! 
And it poured within its wonderful light; 

57 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Where our hovels gloomed and our hunger spawned 

It healed our passionate blight: 

And burning^ burning — ah! 
It clanged (as it kindled us) 
Of a freedom, proud and perilous — 
America! 

[Raising his standard from the heights of the lesser 
mound, the masked Figure of Europe hails Saint Louis.] 

EUROPE 

American! — In you, young Pioneer, 

We greet the conquering star which lures the world. 

America, who cradled you as child — 

A wastrel Moses 'mid wild river-reeds — 

Now calls your prime to lead the tribes of man, 

And I, who gat you heroes from my loins, 

I, Europe, cry as spokesman of these tribes: 

Give welcome to these World Adventurers, 

Who come to blend their blood and toil with yours. 

[Europe dips his standard toward Saint Louis, who re- 
turns the salute with his sword.] 

SAINT LOUIS 

Welcome ! Thrice welcome, World Adventurers ! 
Hail them, my Pioneers ! 

58 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



THE PIONEERS 
[With hearty shout.] 

Good hunting, all! 
[Pointing upward their rifles and guns, they shoot an 
echoing volley into the air.] 

THE WORLD ADVENTURERS 

[Waving their national emblems, shout in reply:] 
Huzza, Saint Louis! 

SAINT LOUIS 
We, who in old times 
Hunted each other, hunt together now 
The quarries of the world: freedom and joy 
And lasting brotherhood. Our trails are cleared ; 
The Earth Spirits are tamed. What can withstand — 
Who shall defy us now? 

[At his confident cry, flame and thunder burst from the 
top of the storm- tower on the left; hurtling toward the 
mound, a blazing bomb explodes in mid air; and plunging 
forward from the dark below the tower, a masked Rider, 
clothed in blood-red mail, gallops his blood-red horse mid- 
way of the plaza, and halts with harsh yell.] 

THE RIDER 
War — war defies! 
[Reining his horse, he brandishes backward his sanguine 
lance toward the darkness, and shouts:] 
Mache! 

59 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



[Immediately from the obscure background and side en- 
trances (left) there pours in, pell mell, a fierce horde of his 
demon followers — vivid in scarlet, purple, yellow, black, 
and sharp contrasting colors, panoplied in the varied ac- 
coutrements of war, ancient and oriental. 

At their head rides Gold, returning on a horse of gold. 

The hordes enter screaming, to the rimibling of drums, 
and swarm over the plaza spaces on the left, surrounding 
the War Demon, where he sits high on his gule-bright horse 
on the lesser mound. Around him, like the hosts of Darius, 
his followers stretch to the darkness. In the background, 
long lances, bearing spiked human heads, loom from behind 
him.] 

THE WAR DEMONS 

[Yelling, as they sweep forward.] 

Mache! Mache! IViache! 

THE PIONEERS AND ADVENTURERS 

[Raising their weapons and standards, start toward 
them.] 

Saint Louis and victory! 

SAINT LOUIS 

[Putting to his lips a trumpet, blows it, and then calls:] 

Pioneers! Americans! JVIy countrymen! 

HIS FOLLOWERS 

[Pausing, shout in answer:] 

Saint Louis! 

60 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



SAINT LOUIS 
Halt ! A parley with this host : 
Hail, Gold! You are returned! 

GOLD 
[Who sits, mounted, beside the War Demon:] 

I am returned, 
And bring new hordes in vengeance. 

SAINT LOUIS 

A new fall 
You ride to! — What are these? 

GOLD 

My mercenaries: 
Still, old as time, they do my will to-day. 

SAINT LOUIS 
But not to-morrow! 
[Pointing:] 

Who is he? 

GOLD 

My tool 
And mightiest minion — War. 
[To the Demon:] 

Declare our challenge! 



6i 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



WAR 

[To Saint Louis:] 
A million hearts have dyed me in these gules: 
The hearth fires of a million homes my horse 
Has stamped to ashes. In the name of saints 
And saviors I have served my master, Gold. 
Once more I serve him. All your proudest dreams, 
Saint Louis, I defy, and challenge — so! 

[He hurls toward Saint Louis a bomb, which bursts above 
the mound in falling fire.] 

SAINT LOUIS 
And so, War, I accept your challenge! 

[He plucks again the star from his fillet, and holds it 
upward, glowing. 

A troop of the World Adventurers, clad as knights, ride 
forward from the right. Their leader is clothed like Saint 
Louis.] 

THEIR LEADER 

[Raising his lance.] 

Choose, 

Saint Louis! Choose from us! 

SAINT LOUIS 

You, then, I choose 
To fight with War. The victor holds the field. 
Receive our star, and wear it in the tourney. 

62 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



[From Saint Louis' hand, a Herald bears the star to the 
Tourney Rider, who places it shining in his helmet. 

The others draw back. 

From either side, mounted on their mailed horses, the 
white Tourney Rider and the crimson War Demon con- 
front each other. 

From above, Saint Louis lifts his perpendicular sword 
and calls:] 

Ho, ready ! — Ride! 

[The sword point clangs on the stone. 

With lances set, the antagonists spur toward each other. 

From both sides great shouts go up, and continue clam- 
orously as the riders meet in shock, draw back, and plunge 
again.] 

THE WAR DEMONS 
Nil^e! mU\ KaiThanatos! 

THE PIONEERS AND ADVENTURERS 
Victory and Life ! 

[The tournament continues fiercely. 

In the conflict their lances are shattered. 

World Adventurer and War Demon draw then their 
swords and strike at each other. 

Amid din of the watching hosts. Saint Louis' champion 
strikes from the War Demon his helmet and unhorses him. 

The clamor grows wilder. 

Seeing the plight of War, Gold rides to the fallen Demon, 
who reaches to his stirrup and, mounting with him, is 

63 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



whirled away (left) into the darkness, amidst the stampede 
and rout of the Demon hordes. 

With exulting shouts, the Pioneers and Adventurers are 
starting to pursue, when — above the mound-shrine — ap- 
pears an enormous star, burning whitely. 

Below it Saint Louis puts once more the trumpet to his 
lips, blows loud, and calls again.] 

SAINT LOUIS 
The star! 

THE PIONEERS AND ADVENTURERS 

[Pausing, dazzled, screen their eyes and cry out:] 

The star! The star! 

[Above, the apparition vanishes. 
Below, the hordes of War disappear.] 

SAINT LOUIS 

Our star has won! 
Remember the star's voice : Not vengeance — peace ! 
Peace, and the law of brothers! — O my brothers, 
Harli where the demon's rout dies moaning. Peace! 
The star is holy where forgiveness burns. 
Our flag is bright with stars of brotherhood. 

[A herald has brought from the shrine a great folded 
banner of the American colors, wreathed, and holds it 
beside Saint Louis. 

Saint Louis lifts it above the assembled peoples, who 
bow down with a deep murmur.] 

64 



SAINT LOUTS: A MASQUE 



ALL 
America! — Our stars! 

[The Tourney Rider has mounted the temple steps with 
his shattered lance, and hands to Saint Louis the star from 
his helmet. 

Saint Louis takes it, and hands to him in return the 
color standard, which the Rider bears with him aside.] 

SAINT LOUIS 

The wounds of War 

Are healed in that remembrance. 

[To the Rider:] 

You fought well. 

[To the Assemblage:] 

Comrades, what lurking foes waylay our path 

When loudest swells our boast! Let our crusade 

Champion the stars, but first ourselves be clean! 

Yonder — ah, yonder, even from our own midst, 

What shapes of sorrow and unclean despair 

Rise in our path once more! Hark now: what dirge? 

What stifled cry? — (pointing) — That frail, unhappy 

one! 

Who — who are they that trail her robe forlorn? 

[From amidst the crowded groups on the right, faintly a 
dirge of women's voices has begun to lift in low wailing.] 

65 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



THE DIRGE 
To some, to some — the hearths desire; 

To us, to us — hearths moan: 
To some, ah, some — the kindling fire; 

To us — the cold hearth-stone. 

Ah, holy One! 
For them — the smile of valor; 
For us — the pallor, the pallor: 

Oh, for the sun! 
The sun! 

[The bright-colored crowd, now parting, draw back 
with startled and pitying gestures, revealing in their 
midst groups of haggard women and forlorn children, old 
men bowed over, and young men darkly brooding: among 
them, a masked female Form in black, a scarlet band 
about her forehead. 

Chanting their dirge, the dun-colored pageant moves 
haltingly toward the mound. 

Last in the pageant walks a tall Figure completely hooded 
in black featureless mask, and straight-robed in black. 

Moving below the mound, the masked Woman's form 
raises her thin hands toward Saint Louis, as the dirge con- 
tinues.] 

DIRGE OF THE WOMEN IN DUN 
A soul — a soul to bear the child! 
A soul — to bear the scorn! 
66 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



And some to clasp the undefiled, 
And we — the love unborn! 

Ah J lonely God! 
For some — the lover, the neighbor; 
For us — the labor, the labor: 
Oh, for the sod! 
The sod! 

SAINT LOUIS 

[Gazing with awe at the hooded Woman below.] 

In Christ His name, what are you? 

THE WOMAN 

Poverty: 
These are my children. 

[Pointing at the black-hooded Figure.] 

Yonder stands their father. 

SAINT LOUIS 
But they — what are their names? 

POVERTY 

He christened them: 
Shame is my eldest: Vice and Plague I bore 
Twins, to his power: next Dumbness and Despair, 
And here you see their offspring. Yonder — ah, 

67 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



There stands my brooding son, Rebellion. These, 
And many more, their father brands with names; 
But I — I call them all my comrades. 

SAINT LOUIS 

Tell: 
What bodes that scarlet band about your brow? 

POVERTY 
Ask him who tied it there. 

[She points again at the hooded Figure.] 

SAINT LOUIS 

But what is he? 

POVERTY 

[Shrinking back.] 

I dare not name him. He is never named 
When I am near. 

SAINT LOUIS 

Speak, hooded shape: What are you? 

[The Figure in black moves silently toward Saint Louis, 
and begins to ascend the steps of the mound.] 

Why do you mount toward me? — Stay ! Are you dumb ? 
Your silence cries to God! 

[Saint Louis draws back. 
68 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



The Figure approaches him with slow menace and 
touches his arm.] 

Your hand is cold. 

Why have you left your place? 

THE FIGURE 

My place is here. 

SAINT LOUIS 
Your voice — it chills my heart. What power is yours? 

THE FIGURE 
[Pointing below.] 

My power is placed above the reach of — those. 

[He grasps the hilt of Saint Louis' sword.] 

SAINT LOUIS 

[Wresting it from him.] 

Unloose my sword! 

[The Figure reaches upward.] 

Touch not my star! Dark shape, 

/ will unmask you. 

[Tearing the hood from the face, Saint Louis starts back. 
Dropping the robe from his shoulders, the Figure steps 
forth all gleaming, as Saint Louis cries out:] 

Gold! 

GOLD 

We meet once more. 
69 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



[Wrenching the sword from Saint Louis, Gold strides up 
the steps to the shrine, and turns, brandishing it.] 

Hail me, my Earth Spirits! 

VOICES 

[Cry from below.] 

Gold! Yo,Gold! 

[Appearing from behind the mound, the Earth Spirits 
rush up the slopes and steps.] 

THE PIONEERS AND ADVENTURERS 

[Shout.] 

Saint Louis! 

GOLD 

[Exultant.] 

Wings ! Now their wings are mine ! Surround my temple ! 

[Gold goes into the shrine, bearing the sword. 

The Earth Spirits rush up after him, and stand guard 
about the closed door with outspread wings. 

There they confront Saint Louis, who pauses midway on 
the steps, clutching the air dazedly for his reft sword.] 

THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN 

[From below.] 

Save us, Saint Louis ! 

[Saint Louis stands, groping upward. 
From the sky, a shooting-star starts, and falls beyond 
the temple, as the deep sky voice calls:] 
70 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



THE SKY VOICE 

Saint Louis! 
\ SAINT LOUIS 

Hark! the omen! 

THE SKY VOICE 
Saint Louis, call your brothers! 

SAINT LOUIS 

Wasapedan, 
I hear! 

THE SKY VOICE 
Alone, you fall. Make league together. 
Call on the cities! — League, and conquer Gold! 

SAINT LOUIS 
Cahokia, your vision falls on me: 
Here on your mound, I hark now, and remember! 

THE WOMEN 
[From below.] 

Saint Louis, save us! 

SAINT LOUIS 
Bear with me, my sisters! 
Your sorrow is our nation's. I will call 
My brother cities here, and purge our temple. 

71 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



[To his gesture, four mounted Heralds move forward on 
the space below. Their horses are plumed with long, slim 
wings like swallows.] 

Ride, Heralds! — Make your trumpets the four winds! 
Call to the cities and proclaim our League ! 

[Spurring their horses to the four corners of the plaza, 
the Heralds sound their trumpets with loud peals. 
From far away, martial replies come back like echoes. 
Saint Louis speaks again to the dun-colored figures below.] 

Rise up, pale women. Watch beside me here. 
For they are coming. Rise now. Poverty, 
For you shall find your rest here on my mound. 
And sleep with your sad children. 

[Beckoning the masked Form, Saint Louis himself goes 
down and leads her up to the mound's level, trailed after 
by others of the dark pageant. 

There for a moment Poverty stands beside him, then 
sinks down, where he bends over her. The others also sink 
down, and Saint Louis speaks, with gentle gesture.] 

Now, sweet dreams! 
To-morrow these shall wake with other names! 

[The light now fades from the mound, from all except 
the figure of Saint Louis and above him the shrine, with 
the Earth Spirits on guard. 

Rising, Saint Louis makes signal again to the Heralds, 
who blow their trumpets a second time. 
72 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



The trumpets' echo sounds louder. 

A third time they blow. 

The peal is replied to from all parts, and now by land 
and water, to a march music of spirited solemnity, the 
Pageant of the Cities begins majestically to enter. 

In seven major groups come the cities of the Union, 
representing all the states and the islands, and leading 
them — the Federal Capital. Accompanying them rides a 
group of foreign cities, representing countries of South 
America, Canada, England, and Europe. 

The seven groups of the Union are marshalled in this 
wise: 

By water, the cities of the Rivers, led by New Orleans; 
and of the Lakes, led by Chicago. 

By land, those of the Eastern seaboard, led by New York; 
of the Western coast, by San Francisco; of the Mountains 
by Denver; of the Islands — Honolulu. 

Attending the cities are their distinctive Industries. 

Marshalling them all rides the city Washington. 

In his train are groups of the nation's Arts, Sciences, and 
Professions. 

As they approach, the Pioneers and Adventurers move 
on either side to the middle and background. 

Converging like a vast V, whose apex is the foot of the 
mound, the city groups take their stations on the plaza 
foreground — Washington and his group* at the apex. 

There Washington salutes Saint Louis, and speaks.] 



*In this group are the Arts, Play, Dance, the Civic Theatre, etc., and with 
them children and young people come dancing. 

73 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



WASHINGTON 
Saint Louis, to our states and sister lands, 
Our coasts, and isles, our mountains, rivers, and lakes, 
The winds have borne your cry, and we respond. 

THE SEVEN GROUPS 
[Calling, through their masked spokesmen.] 

[I] 
I from the eastern sea have come — New York. 

[11] 
I from the western — San Francisco. 

[in] 

I 

Speak from the lakes — Chicago. 

[IV] 

I from the rivers — 
New Orleans. 

[V] 
On the moimtains — Denver, I. 

[VI] 
I call from the far islands — Honolulu ! 

WASHINGTON 
[VII] 
And I from the Capital. — We hail you, brother! 
What urging cause now calls us to make league? 

74 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



SAINT LOUIS 

Gold has usurped our temple. — In our path 

Lo, we have grappled the Elements, Earth, and War, 

And overcome them. Gold alone has sHpped 

Our grasp, eluding us in subtle guises. 

Here, in his train, behold this palHd troupe 

Of Poverty, bowed in dark. — Cities, my brothers^, 

Gold has usurped our temple and our sword: 

How shall we cope with Gold? 

WASHINGTON 

[Turning to his group.] 

Imagination, 
Reveal, and answer! For if you are blind, 
The nations walk in darkness. 

[From the group of Arts and Sciences, Imagination 
stands forth — a noble female Form, masked in serene 
beauty.] 

IMAGINATION 

Lords of the earth, 
Are you, then, stricken so dumb? And are you dazzled 
WTien Gold draws near to God? And do your souls 
Cry for a saviour? 
Close your eyes, people! 

75 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Gaze there in your own darkness: 
What do you behold there? 
Follow me: I will show you. 

[Through the fallen figures on the steps, she mounts to 
the mound level, where she stands in the dimness and 
looks back on the illumined plaza.] 

In all this gorgeous pageant of the world 

Has none beheld him? Nay, he sits in twilight 

And broods by fallen Poverty. Behold him ! — 

[She points beside the stricken form of Poverty to where 
a slight, slim Figure sits.] 

A child : a child ! — And wings he bears — and thorns ! 
[Reaching her hand.] 

Arise, dear Love, and lead me to the temple. 

[The child rises from his brooding, and steps into sudden 
light. Bare-limbed, he wears a dim blue tabard, through 
which at the shoulders spring iris wings. On his head 
thorns glitter like a garland. 

Taking Imagination's outstretched hand, and passing 
Saint Louis (who gazes with awe), he leads her up the 
steps to the shrine and pauses. 

Saint Louis follows part way up the steps. 

At the approach of the child, the Earth Spirits draw 
back from the closed door, screening their eyes. 

The child draws nearer and — as Imagination stands 
beside him — knocks. 

76 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



The door clangs with a deep booming, and swings open. 

Slowly Gold comes forth, holding the sword. 

Confronting the child, he raises the sword above his 
head to strike. 

The child looks up at him. 

Gold pauses, wavering. 

The sword falls from his grasp, and he bows down with 
a deep cry:] 

GOLD 
Master! 

[The child touches his bowed form. 
Gold raises his head, reaches for the sword, and holds it 
up. 
Imagination takes the sword and speaks.] 

IMAGINATION 

Now, Gold, rejoin these Earth Spirits. You 

Henceforth are one of them — to serve us. 

[Gold draws back and joins the group of Earth Spirits, 
who bow down with him.] 

THE EARTH SPIRITS 

Ee-yo! 
IMAGINATION 

[Gazing below at the stricken forms.] 

Now wake, you lonely and despairing ones, 
Wake from your dark, and he what you have dreamed! 
Saint Louis, guard the sword! — Love holds the temple. 

77 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



[Standing the sword against the lintel, Imagination and 
Love go within. 

Saint Louis, from midway of the steps, ascends and takes 
the sword. 

Standing before the temple shrine, he turns and looks 
below. 

On the mound level and the lower steps, a dreamy light 
reveals where Poverty and the other stricken shapes have 
risen from their dun garb, new clad in forms of light and 
graciousness.] 

SAINT LOUIS 

[Addressing them and the multitude.] 

O sisters — brothers — cities leagued by Love! 

If we are dreaming, let us scorn to wake; 

Or waking, let us shape the sordid world 

To likeness of our dreams. For 'tis a little, 

When we, too, like Cahokia, shall lie down, 

And this our city be a silent mound, 

Silent, save over all — the chanting stars! 

[Beyond him, from the sky, slowly the Great Bear 
gleams, while the star-choirs sing, remote:] 

CHORUS OF THE STARS 
Out of the formless void 
Beauty and order are born: 
One for the all, all in one, 
We wheel in the joy of our dance, , 
78 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



WASAPfiDAN 
Saint Louis! 

SAINT LOmS 
Hark — the voice ! 

WASAPfiDAN 

Behold the wings! 

SAINT LOUIS 
What wings, O Wasapedan? 

WASAPfiDAN 

Eagle's wings! 

SAINT LOUIS 
What eagle flies? 

WASAPEDAN 
America! Your league 
Rides on his wings, and rises toward the stars. 

[Wasapedan fades. 

Saint Louis, looking toward the southern tower, points 
there with his sword, and turns toward the great assem- 
blage.] 

SAINT LOUIS 
Cities! My brothers — sing! Our league is bom! 

79 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



ALL THE ASSEMBLAGE 

Saint Louis! The League of Cities! 

[Suddenly all start, uplifting their arms, and, gazing 
toward the tower entrance, cry out:] 

Wings! the Wings! 

[Beyond, from the outside darkness, a great whirring 
hums; groups of the people start back and forward, leav- 
ing a wide pathway, along which — emerging from the dim- 
ness — a gigantic Bird sweeps whirring, darts for an in- 
stant through bright radiance, then soars into the night, 
circling upward and scattering wild sparkles of fire in its 
wake.* 

Saint Louis stands, pointing skyward with his sword. 

Meantime, from the gazing hosts of the plaza, swaying 
with rhythmic motion, a mighty chorus rises.] 



CHORUS 

Out of the formless void 
Beauty and order are born: 
One for the all, all in one, 
We wheel in the joy of our dance. 



*In configuration and color an eagle, the bird, of course, is an aeroplane, 
serving thus for the first time the symbolism of dramatic poetry. The 
sparkles in its wake are van-colored fireworks, shot off as it soars. See 
Appendix, Page 89. 

80 



SAINT LOUIS: A MASQUE 



Brother with brother 
Sharing our light. 
Build we new worlds 
With ancient Ure! 

[From far above temple and plaza, the colossal Eagle 
still drops his fiery plumes.] 



FINIS. 



8i 



APPENDIX 



THE DREAM OF CAHOKIA 

(Note for page 3.) 

As the working out of this Prelude in stage production is tech- 
nically a matter of pantomime and dance, which Mr. Joseph 
LiNDON Smith (my associate in the Saint Louis production of the 
Masque) has devised with imaginative artistry, I have asked 
Mr. Smith himself to describe its outlines. This he has briefly 
done, in his own words, as follows: 

Dimly seen, in the darkness of the yast stage, is an ancient 
temple of the Maya civilization — a concrete expression of the 
religion of the great race of red men of Yucatan and Central 
America. (See Preface, page xiv.) The temple is to some extent 
a replica of the famous Chichen Itza, one of the greatest mas- 
terpieces of architecture of this wonderful period of art in the 
Western World. 

Into the scene comes a great procession, suggesting the sym- 
bolism and imagery of the race: 

Heroes and gods, priests and priestesses (dancers) and mu- 
sicians walk solemnly across the great plaza before the temple — 
a brilliant spectacle, exotic and unique, flooded in the warm 
glow of sunset light. 

While priests perform a ceremony at the altar in front of a 
great mound, above which towers the shrine of the temple, groups 
of men, boys, and girls give expression in dance to religious in- 
spiration and embodiment of strength and grace; and when the 
climax of the dance is reached, the vision fades — the lights grow 
dim, night steals on, and only the glow of the altar fire remains. 

When the last of the priests has left the scene, the altar smoke 
blows away, and the heroic figure of Cahokia is discovered — 
seated on the mound. 

The Masque begins here. 

85 



APPENDIX 



CIVIC MASQUES 

(Note for Preface page vii.) 

The underlying motive of ''The Civic Theatre" volume, here 
referred to, is the substitution of a dynamic for a static ideal 
in civic celebrations. 

Millions of dollars are yearly expended for the latter ideal, 
almost nothing for the former. 

A passive form of exhibit represents the static ideal; an active 
form of expression represents the dynamic. The former involves 
collecting works of art, the latter creating them. 

Public museums, bazaars, exhibitions, parks, are instituted 
to collect the results of creative work in art, industry, agricultinre, 
etc. ; they very seldom produce creative work. 

On the other hand, civic theatres — which might well leaven 
whole communities with the desire andopportunity to participate 
in creative work — are nowhere established, though their unde- 
veloped beginnings are manifest in the activities of the public 
playgrounds, the movement for civic pageantry, music in parks, 
the Camp Fire Girls, Christmas and holiday festivals in public 
places, new phases of country fairs, etc., in all of which the higher 
significance of expressing life, instead of merely witnessing it, is 
consciously or unconsciously recognized. 

Such recognition implies a living social ideal of art, and relates 
it commonly to every constructive human activity. By it 
the farmer, the engineer, the naturalist, the gardener, the athlete, 
the chemist, the carpenter, the statesman, human beings of 
every creative vocation, are recognized as potential artists and 
craftsmen, appropriately co-workers and peers of the poet, the 
painter, the dramatist, the architect, sculptor, etc. 

Such recognition does away with the false distinction between 
fine arts and gross arts : it implies that all true art is fine art. 

It does away, therefore, with the average man's notion of art 
as a "high brow" individualistic function, essentially unrelated 
to his own daily life. Indeed, it reverses that judgment, and 
makes the rank and file of men and women realize, perhaps for 

86 



APPENDIX 



the first time, that the cultivation of art is the most important 
and direct means of fulfilling the most crying need of their lives 
— social solidarity. 

As a means to that, art has been recognized by the organizers 
of The Pageant and Masque of Saint Louis. 

In preparing for the production of the Masque, I can myself 
speak for the exhilarating response to that ideal on the part of 
so-called average people, resulting in fresh and astonishing de- 
velopments of practical democracy. In a single committee 
meeting on organization, for instance, a poor immigrant shop- 
keeper, a milHonaire, a labor leader, a professor of fine arts, 
brought thus together for the first time, enthusiastically sup- 
ported one another's proposals. And such action has been 
typical. 

In preparation for rehearsals, likewise, men of athletics — 
wrestlers, swimmers, riders; men of aeronautics — ''fliers" and 
airship builders; men of power-plants — ''light men" and elec- 
tric engineers, have shown keen zest in participating for the first 
time as craftsmen, whose training and insight have been needed 
to cooperate in the technique of the dramatist and stage- 
producer. 

So to organize the long-dissociated crafts and talents of a 
great city is the special task of dramatic engineering; and its 
most effectual instrimaent, I believe, is the civic Masque. 

If this be proved by test and rightly recognized by social 
workers and statesmen, the results should be revolutionary to 
public recreation and education. 

Communities, by such means, will come to express their mani- 
fold meanings in noble public masques. Future expositions 
and world fairs will represent the great contributary cities and 
industries of the world not simply by miles of labelled exhibits on 
walls and under glass, but — f ocussed in vast amphitheatres, 
before audiences of fascinated thousands — will produce a varied 
repertory of vital civic dramas, interpreting their distinctive 
communities through music, spectacle, poetry, dance, magic of 
lighting, and choral song. 

87 



APPENDIX 



MASKED FIGURES 

(Note for pages.) 

By a Masked Figure in this work is not meant a person wear- 
ing a mask like those worn by participants in masked balls, or by 
banditti in melodrama — for concealment. The masks referred 
to in this ''Masque" (with one exception — that worn by the 
Figure in Black, in Part II) are used primarily to reveal, not to 
conceal. 

Like Greek masks, they are worn to reveal their underlying 
symbols, as well as to sharpen and simplify the outlines of feat- 
ures looked at from a great distance. 

In their forms, however, they are not classic, for the symbols 
they represent are varied, some being modern and indigenous. 

The masks are used also to differentiate the spokesmen of 
groups from the other individuals of their special groups. The 
other individuals are "made up" in theatrical grease-paint, em- 
phasizing a simplification of the facial planes, suggesting at close 
range a cubist effect, which is contrived to "carry" at long 
visual range. 

CHORAL SONGS 

(Note for page xxii.) 

In the outdoor stage for the Masque, at Saint Louis, a pit is 
provided for the orchestra, near the back, at centre, concealed 
from the audience by the central mound. Concealed also, near 
the orchestra and above, the chorus of many hundred trained 
voices is stationed within range and control of the music director. 
For these voices the temple wall and wings, fifty feet in height, 
and about three hundred feet in length, act as a sounding-board 
to project the sound toward the audience. 

Since complete technical control and correlation of orchestra 
and voices are essential to rendering the composer's work prop- 
erly, the singers themselves do not appear on the stage, but on 
the stage the various pantomime groups — the Wild Nature 
Forces, the Pioneers, the World Adventurers, etc. — suit their 

88 



APPENDIX 



action to the music and choral song of the concealed orchestra 
musicians, and the singers. 

THE DISCOVERERS 

(Note for page 24.) 

The entrance by water of the Discoverers interprets sugges- 
tively material treated in the historical Pageant. 

Thus simply and unobtrustively Pere Marquette and the 
devoted ''black robes" stole in to the half light of those undis- 
covered regions of the great river, followed later by the more 
brilliant pomp of mediaeval church and royal soldiery. 

The three Masked Figures on the Sphere are, of course, sym- 
bolic of the discoveries made in the Western Hemisphere by the 
Church, Spain, and France, embodied in such adventurous 
knights of Spain as De Soto and such French fur-traders as 
Laclede. 

SAINT LOUIS 

(Note for page 30.) 

For purposes of this Masque, the name Saint Louis is pro- 
nounced without sounding the final 's' (i. e., Saint Loo-ey), not 
simply because this pronunciation — still retained by the city's 
older families — is nearer to the French original, but because 
it has a clearer and more sonorous quality for being spoken, 
shouted, or chanted, out-of-doors, on the immense stage at Forest 
Park. 

THE EAGLE 
(Note for page 80.) 

At the date of writing this note, I have recently been in com- 
munication with Mr. Henry Woodhouse and other members 
of the Aero Club of New York, in regard to securing the best 
obtainable "bird man" and aeroplane for the night flight of the 
Eagle in this Masque. 

In conferring with them, it has been a significant experience 
to note how eagerly these pioneers of the air have welcomed this 

89 



APPENDIX 



new opportunity of pioneering for art. Themselves men of 
imagination and engineers, they have been quick to recognize in 
this co-working with fellow craftsmen a collaboration which 
should open for aeronautics a great and practical civic field, far 
more inspiring than that field of war — antagonistic to civiliza- 
tion — which till now has given their vocation its chief support 
and encouragement. 

Captain Baldwin, for instance, described to me how he alighted 
last Christmas from the skies above Montreal — garbed as an 
aerial Santa Claus — welcomed by twenty thousand expectant 
children, who had breathlessly awaited his published coming 
from the North Pole. 

That experience, he remarked with enthusiasm, had revealed 
to him imaginative possibilities of his profession, which he saw 
opening into still wider vistas at Saint Louis, in the flight of the 
Eagle, expressing the social aspiration of a League of the Cities. 

ACTION 

(Note for page xxii.) 

The action of the Masque takes place in two planes, the hu- 
man and the superhuman, represented physically on the stage 
by the plaza, and by the tops of the temple and the towers. 

Each of these planes has its minor levels. 

In the lower plane, individual action and speech are lifted 
above group action and song by the raised levels of the three 
mounds. 

(For example, Cahokia and Saint Louis, chief spokesmen of 
the human plane, speak from the central mound raised above the 
plaza groups of the Latin Nations and the Pioneers; again, 
Europe and War speak from the lesser mounds, raised above the 
groups of the World Adventurers and the War Demons.) 

In the upper plane, likewise, individual speech and apparition 
are lifted above group song and action. 

(For example, Wasapedan, the great Bear, chief spokesman 
of the superhuman plane, appears and speaks from mid-air, 

90 



APPENDIX 



above the top of the temple fagade — on which level occur the 
appearances of the Stars, and the Spirits of the Years.) 

The actor who chants the work of Wasapedan is of course 
concealed, and from behind him a constructed sounding-board 
projects his voice toward the audience. 

Thus there are two major planes of action (Earth plane and 
Sky plane); each of these has its minor raised levels of action. 

In this way the human and superhuman meanings of the 
Masque are strongly visuaUzed and contrasted. 

In this connection it is important to note that throughout 
the Masque no appeal is made to the ear by speech or song with- 
out a simultaneous appeal to the eye, making clear to the sight 
the meaning of the dialogue and the choruses. This technique 
is conditioned by the great scale of the action, which both to 
the eye and ear must be magnified. (According to careful tests, 
made with men's voices, the acoustics of the Forest Park stage 
and auditorium are almost perfect.) 

So, just as the group action visually is focussed upon a few 
chief vantage-points of illumination (Hke the mound levels 
and the tower tops), so orally the spoken word is focussed in 
three spokesmen (Cahokia, Saint Louis, and Wasapedan), who, 
strongly visualized, speak with voices magnified by constructed 
sounding-boards, or megaphones, or both. 
(Change of Scene) 

In the interval of darkness which occurs between the close of 
Mr. Stevens' Pageant and the prelude of my Masque, a change 
of scene takes place. 

During the Pageant, the high wall in the background has 
appeared like a precipitous natural cliff of rock, grown over with 
ivy and verdure; the two towers have represented (first) two 

91 



APPENDIX 



gigantic tree trunks, storm-broken at their tops; and (then) two 
towers of a log-built stockade; also, the water-line of the stage 
has appeared like a natural river-bank. 

Now, for the more formal, symbolic purposes of the Masque, 
the painted back-drop of cliff-scenery is removed, revealing the 
architectural fagade and wings of the ancient temple. Likewise, 
the stockade-painted canvas covering the towers is lowered away, 
exposing underneath the sculptured surfaces of two vast pylons, 
carved each with an ancient Indian god some forty feet in 
stature. On the tops of these pylons appear Hiloha and Noohai, 
the Elements. Moreover, the water-line of the stage, at its 
centre, is altered, uncovering a broad flight of formal stone steps 
leading up to the stage level, which now resembles a great plaza. 

Besides these changes, the following also take place: 

The mound, which stands during the Pageant near the right 
background, is moved (for the Masque) to the centre middle- 
ground, and there — directly behind it and against it — is placed a 
taller stage-property, the temple-shrine, whose steps thus lead up 
from the top of the mound. During the Pageant, this shrine — 
turned back-to toward the audience — has resembleda rocky por- 
tion of the background cliff, being so painted on its back surface. 

In addition, the two lesser mounds are moved on to the stage 
at left and right. 

TIME 
(Note for page xxii) 

The Masque is concerned with the long continuity of human 
endeavor. 

It treats the materials of archaeology and history in the 
Western Hemisphere, from the prehistoric times of the mound 
builders to the present time: it treats the materials of imagina- 
tion in their perennial aspects. 

92 



THE PAGEANT OF SAINT LOUIS 

A Synopsis by its author 
Thomas Wood Stevens 



THE PAGEANT OF SAINT LOUIS 

(Reference from page ix of the Preface) 

Note: The following is a synopsis, written for this 
volume by Mr. Thomas Wood Stevens, in descrip- 
tion of his Pageant: 

The Pageant of Saint Louis, written to precede the 
performances of Mr. MacKaye's Masque, is in form 
a chronicle play dealing with aboriginal life and the 
exploration of the Mississippi, and with the settlement 
and first hundred years' existence of the city. The 
stage for the Pageant and Masque is constructed, as 
the vast amphitheatre requires, on the most heroic 
scale; and this scale, as well as the necessity for 
extreme compression in time, should be borne in mind 
when one considers the work as a whole. 

The scene, at the opening of the Pageant, is the 
bank of a river, the audience looking across as from 
the opposite shore. The bank is a wooded one, with 
open space amid the trees, and far up, at the back, a 
limestone cM surmounted with Hving green. It is 
late afternoon, and the sun slants across a low mound 
of earth, its upper surface freshly heaped. Here and 
there, between the trees, one glimpses the ends of pro- 
jecting shelters of woven mat-work. 

95 



THE PAGEANT 



The overture closes with a drumming rhythm, and 
over the top of the mound come three figures, a priest 
or prophet of the Mound-builders, and two youthful 
acolytes. They rekindle the fire upon the mound, 
and signal with smoke puffs to distant villages, the 
priest lamenting the death of the chief. The tribe 
joins in the lamentation, and the dead chief, with all 
barbaric state, is borne to his rest upon the summit, the 
priest chanting his death song, and the people bringing 
earth in baskets and patiently heaping higher the level 
of the mound. 

In this they are interrupted by the entrance of three 
hunters, young men returning in triumph with fresh 
buffalo skins on their shoulders. The hunters are 
led by a young chief, who calls on the tribe to follow 
him to the trails and the feasting, since he has found 
a moving herd. The priest stays them for a moment, 
calling the young chief to his side; as the lad comes up 
to the mound's top, the priest reveals to him the face 
of the dead man, and the young chief throws himself 
down, overcome with grief. But the hunters on the 
plain below are not moved by this, and the tribe comes 
to their calling, leaving the young chief standing over 
his beloved dead, prophesying that the mounds will 
rise no higher. The women come up the slope with 
the last baskets of earth, and when they go down again, 
following after the men of the tribe, the mound is seen 
to be empty. 

96 



THE PAGEANT 



When the Mound-builders have disappeared, the 
Indians of the later time enter and set up their tepees; 
the life of the village, with the play of the children and 
the toil of the women, begins, and is interrupted for a 
short time by the Spanish gold-seekers under De Soto; 
the failure of the object of the expedition, and its 
leader's decision to retrace his steps, is shown in pan- 
tomime only, as matter more remote from the actual 
site of the Pageant. The march of the Spaniards is 
followed by a scene presenting the Indians in thier 
dances, in battle, and finally in the council which 
divides the land and sends part of the tribes up the 
Missouri to the snow and the sun-setting, and part 
southward to the summer and the flowing-of-the-river. 

After this council, messengers come bearing word 
of the approaching Black-Gown, and Marquette and 
Joliet enter in their canoes, are greeted in friendship 
by the chiefs and assembled tribe, and pass onward 
down the river. After them. La Salle comes driving 
his unwilling traders before him, buying skins of the 
Indians, and finally forcing his way down the terrible 
and mysterious river. With him the first movement 
of the Pageant closes. 

A spoken interlude by an Indian Prophet interprets 
what has passed, in the terms of his people, and foretells 
the newer time. 

The second movement begins with the coming of the 
actual founders of the city. Laclede Liguest has 

97 



THE PAGEANT 



already arrived, selected the site, and blazed the trees 
to mark it. Now young Auguste Chouteau, his step- 
son, arrives with thirty men to clear the ground and 
start the building of the first houses. Laclede now 
enters, encourages the builders, lays down a plat of 
his future city, and with prophetic words assures them 
of his belief that it will become "a considerable place 
hereafter." And he names it Saint Louis. 

The village grows, house by house. Men trade in 
furs. The bell of the mission church is heard. Two 
years pass, and, the land across the river having been 
ceded to the English, the Commandant, St. Ange de 
Bellerive, sets up a French military post at Saint 
Louis. He is followed by the first of the Spanish 
Governors, Piernas. The place grows, and Trudeau, 
the first Schoolmaster, appears. The defence against 
the Indian attack of 1780 is shown, the embattled 
(and probably mythical) deeds of the Schoolmistress, 
Madame Rigouche, being enacted along the stockades. 

Calm succeeds, ruffled by the echoes of the Bastille's 
fall in the songs of the local Sans Culottes Society. 
Then word of the Purchase, and the coming of the 
Americans. Governor Delassus receives Captain Amos 
Stoddard, who, as representative of the French Re- 
public, raises for the last time the French flag. The 
people crowd closer to be under it. Charles Gratiot 
suggests a stay in the transfer; Stoddard consents; 
the village puts on its afterglow of festival, dances the 

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THE PAGEANT 



gavotte, and feels itself for the moment back in its most 
beloved allegiance. Again the salute is fired, the flag 
flutters down, and the Stars and Stripes are lifted. 
Saint Louis has become an American post. The 
second movement closes. 

A Watchman on the stockade now speaks for the 
American spirit which is to come. 

The third movement begins with the setting out of 
Lewis and Clark on their memorable journey, and with 
the great march of pioneers to the conquering of the 
West. It is now past sunset, and the onward looking 
faces of this great procession peer into the twilight; 
their camp-fires flicker and are left smouldering; the 
oxen slowly drag forward the white-topped wagons; 
the last of the Indians make their peace and depart; 
the first steamboat comes clanking to the levee. When 
the twilight has deepened, lights appear, and the town 
(it is now the year 1825) turns out to welcome General 
Lafayette. 

Years pass, the men of the Battery returning from 
Doniphan's glorious exploit in Mexico filling the next 
scene. Then the singing ideaHsts from the German 
uprising of 1848 come on; and after them, in the 
darkening hour, the turbulent picture of the city 
during the Civil War — the city on the border, with 
its divided sympathies and broken homes. With the 
news of peace the Pageant closes. 

Thomas Wood Stevens. 



99 




THE COUNTRY LIFE PRES3 
GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 



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